


A Call To Arms

by Lopaka_Tanu



Series: Daniel of Malksur [4]
Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode: s01e01 Rising, M/M, Symbiot, Tok'ra, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-10
Updated: 2012-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-29 07:30:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lopaka_Tanu/pseuds/Lopaka_Tanu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the sudden silence that has filled the galaxy after the Goa'uld were wiped out, life for those who survived the war is stagnating. The Tok'ra are now trying to prevent the former slaves from killing themselves and everyone else. Colonization of the galaxy has provided the SGC with a distraction, giving everyone something to do. It is to this that Daniel has come home to.... and from this he wishes to flee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Call To Arms

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be the beginning of a new trilogy. Instead, it petered out and became the end of the whole series.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, or any of the stargate franchise.

It was surreal for him, stepping through the gate on his first mission in over two years. Though, to him, it had only been a month since the battle on Nasia, it felt like a life time ago. There had been so many changes in the world, the galaxy, he still didn't know up from down after a month. May be in time he would feel normal again, but for now it was still hard to believe.

There was a kind of wonder to the world while he was still adjusting. He was easily distracted by this new galaxy of sensations. In fact, he found himself staring off in to distances, lost in thoughts, often. That was the reason he was not the senior archeologist on this mission despite his greater knowledge of the people.

Blinking in confusion, he realized he had done it again. Starting down the monument steps that led to the alien world's gate, he headed for the once grand city. Monuments littered once pristeen streets, buildings laid in rubble where tremors had felled them. The city once looked like Memphis in the ancient days of Earth, the seat of the capital of Egypt during the time of the Goa'uld.

That was something he was having a hard time accepting. The goa'uld were gone and they weren't coming back. After a year of heart stopping danger every time he stepped through the gate, the instincts of that time were hard to suppress. He still kept a tight grip on the weapon they let him have more out of routine than any threat.

"Daniel, come along, young man. This site will not tell us about itself without a little help." Dr. Margaret Weissman was the leading archeologist in dynastic Egyptian worlds at the StarGate Command, thus she had seniority over Daniel now. The fact she had held the post shorter than Daniel meant nothing to her or the others. According to them, he had been dead for two years and was more than a little out of the loop. He needed a guiding hand in her opinion.

Daniel looking almost ten years younger than he should didn't help matters much either. How long he had laid in that sarcophagus was unknown to him, but the side effects were obvious. It was still a mystery just how he had come to be taken from his crypt on Abydos to the abandoned world of Mycenea. Not that he wasn't grateful to whomever had resurrected him.

Fingering the scars on the back of his neck, he wondered why they had left the sutures in when they removed the goa'uld and placed him in the box. It was strange... He blinked as the light in front of him faded out and reappeared several times. "Jack, cut that out!"

"Daniel. This is your first mission since the docs cleared you, try not to get your ass put back up on blocks before we knock the rust off ya, hunh?" Giving his friend a frown, Jack shook his head. Daniel had been doing the Zombie thing every day since they rescued him and it was more than annoying. Granted, the spells were becoming less frequent, but they were still a problem. "Look, we are here on this cake walk because you wanted to get back in the action. If you aren't ready, we will understand."

"I can handle it, Jack, just back off. As you said, this mission is a cake walk, nothing can go wrong. I've been dead these past two years and I am still trying to grasp the fact that I won't have to worry if there is a goa'uld about to jump out from behind the nearest pillar and cackle like a bad villain." Moving off in a huff, Daniel stepped around the man and continued on down the central avenue.

On either side of the wide street, buildings were more or less entact enough to make out what exactly their function was. It was the largest of these that drew his attention now. A great freeze took up the entire side of the building and was covered in hieroglyphics. He quickly scanned the entire surface and grinned over at Dr. Weissman. "This should prove interesting."

"Yes, just as soon as we figure out what it says," she replied distractedly. She was busy using the lense on her camera to study the top of the freeze.

"That was the easy part once I figured out the dialect." Daniel was too busy rubbing a finger down the side of a groove in the freeze to notice Margaret's shock. "The Goa'uld Seti II was a pharaoh on Earth before he ascended the throne of the stars. He wasn't very renown there, but apparently he was favored enough by Ra that he was given this world. Not much of a planet now, is it?"

"No, it's not." Tamping down on her natural impulse to interogate Daniel at a look from Jack, Margaret went back to scanning the freeze with her camera. This was certainly going in her report.

"We can go back now, Jack, you won't find anything here." Turning to face Jack, Daniel sighed in disappointment. He held his finger up to show the man the paint flecs from the freeze. "This city wasn't inhabited long and the planet was unimportant, any archeological evidence is worthless."

"Are you sure, Daniel?" Inside he was two steps away from jumping for joy, but only if he got the right responce.

Daniel nodded. "Ra abandoned it after he gave it to Seti II. When he left, most of his important people did too. This world was never much, but when Ra left, it became just another planet beyond the fringes. Seti II abandoned it for a posting under Apophis twenty years after taking command. He took with him the only thing of importance when he left, the people." Sighing, he waved a hand in disgust of the buildings. "There is nothing to learn here you can't get back on Earth in a hundred different places in Egypt. The paint wasn't even finished on this freeze before it was abandoned."

"Finally! Daniel, you finally get it!" Smiling largely at Daniel, Jack swept him up in a bear hug. "They're just rocks!"

"No, Jack, this world is just worthless." Despite himself, Daniel laughed at Jack's antics. That much he still knew of the world, Jack being a smart ass. "There isn't anything beyond this city and this city was just a fancy of Seti II when he took command. He was a terrible architech and most of these buildings prove it."

Sighing with over exagerated disappointment, Jack shook his head. "Well, it's a start, I guess. Come on, Daniel, your gate awaits."

"Lead on, oh mighty Jack." Daniel rubbed at the scars again as he followed Jack back up the avenue to the stargate. It wasn't exactly a gut feeling, but he knew he had never read or heard about this planet in his travels with SG-1. There were times like this he wondered what exactly the goa'uld had left in him when it died.

Watching them go, Dr. Weissman frowned in anger. Her two assistants were on either side of her with their photographic equipment and understood her rage. This had been set up to be their pet project for over a month now and in less than twenty minutes it had been deciphered and discarded by one of their own as worthless. Today, Daniel had made yet another enemy. She began to understand why he had been so easy to dismiss in their field of study four years ago.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was little warning before the explosion rocked the base. In her lab, Sam grit her teeth over the mouth piece she had requisitioned for this very event. The blasting they were doing to get at the Naquadah in the mines ten miles outside the base's perimeter had driven her to griding her teeth. After her second chipped tooth, she decided that seeing a dentist was less painful than giving up her lab.

She would have prefered to do her research on another world, but the potential destructive nature had prevented it from any of the inhabited colonies. The remoteness of P3R-997 and the ready supply of the gate element made it the ideal location. They only blasted at certain times of the day and always signaled the base before detonation, so it was tolerable.

Spitting out the mouth piece, she walked over to the sink to wash it and her chin. There were two other people in her lab, but they were at their own sinks. Seems she had set a trend for the whole base with the mouth pieces. Sam smiled, she liked being looked up to.

Setting the rubber piece back in the container on the sink, she closed the lid and walked back to her lab table. Today they were going over decay rates in the Naquadah to see if they could harness enough energy to replace the drive on an X301. The sub-light engines in the last test had failed because of the faulty programming and nearly killed her best test pilot. Thankfully, the Tok'ra had been in orbit for a safety net.

If she could replace the engine, she could design a more Earth friendly air craft. Their first orbital ship was looking more and more realistic. The sad fact of the matter was, despite the access to the advanced technology, they still hadn't a ship that wasn't borrowed from the tok'ra. Every ship the tok'ra had was now put to use else where.

Grimacing at that thought, she put it from her mind. Best to concentrait on making a drive they could use without the Tok'ra's help. Right now, her best hope was using a modified version of the reactor the Tok'ra had installed for the base shields. If she could just figure out how to modify the induction field without compromising the integrity of the core chamber, she would have a stable energy field.

So far, she had lost twelve generators and six labs. This was turning out to be the most expensive project the SGC had funded to date. Two more, and the funding for this entire rock would be gone and she would be back on Earth before the international review committee, again. A little charm and good old fashioned bull shiting had saved her ass last month, this time there would be none of that.

Sighing in frustration, she picked up a soddering torch and pulled down her darkened goggles. "Dr. Petrikov, is there any changes in the new induction field on reactor five yet?"

Her Czechoslovakian counter part was busy across the lab working with said reactor. She had on a large electrical glove. Stepping back and turning her head away, she flipped the power switch to on. When all it did was die with a hiss, she sighed in relief. "Niet, Major, we seem to have fudged yet again."

"That's what I figured would happen." Not really, she had expected the field to work perfectly for a few minutes before the power cell died from an over load. She was really hoping that the naquadah ore refinement was the problem, but the fact it hadn't even sparked proved she was wrong. "Set up for these new relay paths. This is a trinium alloy mined from Proxima Centari's zero G mines by the Tok'ra. They were getting ready to ship it to the Tollan as an apology for last month's events, but I hijacked the entire shipment."

She was still pissed that the Tollan had dared to assume they had the right to judge a friend of theirs because he had a sentient being inside him. If they wanted a sign of good faith from the Tok'ra before accepting possible alliances, then they could rot. It wasn't the Tollan's arrogance that had saved the Earth from attacks during the war, and it sure in hell wasn't their much vaunted superior technology either.

Removing her goggles, she tossed them to the work bench and turned the torch off. It took a level head to make the changes necessary to ensure the whole thing didn't come apart and kill them all in the resulting explosion. Handing over the replacement part to Dr. Petrikov, Sam leaned back against her table. Good thing she only had to make the damned things and not design them today.

Reaching behind her, she picked up a packet from the lab table and pulled out a cylinder. Lighting up the tip, she inhaled from the other end slowly. Holding in the breath, she waited a second then released it slowly. "Oh yeah, that's the good stuff."

Frowning, Dr. Merryl came up beside Sam. "You know better than that, Major." Taking the joint from her, he held it in his hand and glared at the now grinning Sam. "Wait until after the part is in place before lighting up. We have to be clear headed, damn it!"

"Have you not wondered if the committee is aware of our celebratory smoke?" Dr. Petrikov slipped the new part in place on the generator and tightened down the bolts before stepping back. Taking the joint from Dr. Merryl, she shook her head. "I think Sam should flip the switch this time because she lit up early."

"Hey! I was just wanting to relieve a little stress before we fired it up. Besides, the fire works always look better when I'm a little buzzed." Seeing her fellow scientists were adament, she picked up the glove on the lab table and put it on. Grumbling, she reached out and flipped the switch. This time, the generator sparked twice then kicked on. As it began to hum and the lights attached to the out put wires came online, she stepped back and admired their handiwork.

Coming up beside Sam, Petrikov handed over the joint. "Congratulations, we've got the first successful Earth built naquadah generator." No sooner than the words were out of her mouth then the lights connected to the generator exploded and the entire lab went dark.

"Bitchen."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Teal'c stepped over the bodies of the fallen Jaffa, searching for survivors of the massacre. He had heard of this meeting and had come hoping to diffuse it before it errupted in violence. By the looks of things, timing of the information was off by at least two days. There would be no survivors this time, just like the last twelve times. Just like the other times, their prim'tas would all have been removed as well. It was becoming the signature of whoever was attacking the meetings between rival Jaffa.

After minutes of searching, he gave up the cause as lost and turned back for the transport. Seeing the Tok'ra agent waiting for him by the craft, he shook his head to signal there were no survivors.

Aldwin nodded and went inside the ship to prepare it for take off. He and Teal'c had visited over a dozen worlds trying to gain the location of the this meeting and it ended just like the rest. Despite his frustration with it, he would not give up until the Jaffa did.

Teal'c stepped aboard the tel'tac and absently turned the symbol to close the hatch. It would be a long trip back to the next planet in the ship, but he wanted the time to himself for meditation. These attacks were increasing in frequency. If he did not get them to stop, the entire Jaffa race would face extinction before the Tok'ra queen was ready to brood.

Taking the secondary control position next to Aldwin, Teal'c scanned the area around the tel'tac. There was no life sign and the only unusual thing was the Chappa'ai. A neutrel planet, like all the others. It was hopeless. As the tel'tac lifted off the planet, he focused his thoughts on the next goal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"All I'm saying, Colonel, is that you can't expect us to make unreasonable deadlines. Just because you think you are god does not make it so! Now, if you will excuse me, I have to perform a miracle here." Dismissing his new CO from thought, Rodney McKay bent back over the piece of unknown alien technology. The lower beings at Area 51 hadn't been able to figure out what it was or did and finally, they had begged him to figure it out.

Actually, they had brought it to him after yet another of their people had died from some form of electroshock the device put out and now he had to deal with it. Apparently since Major Carter was off world, he was the resident genius. That irked him more than it should have. He knew he was second best to her, her posting had proved that. Not that he would ever, ever admit that.

Jack had not stopped harping on him about finding what the damned thing did from the time it had been brought in two hours ago. Every five minutes, like clock work, the annoying Colonel would enter the lab, mess with things and yell at him about not solving it yet. It seemed that the other members of his team were blessed with an abundance of knowledge that made them damn near perfect at their jobs.

Ever since being assigned to SG-1 two weeks ago, there had been a massive inferiority attitude expressed towards him. They believed he wasn't good enough, and if their attitudes were justified towards Major Carter, then they were right about him. Then again, no one was that right all the time. She was just damned lucky.

After all, there could only truly be one Rodney McKay in the universe and he was was it.

Jack, having recovered from the shock of such blantant disrespect from his new team member, glared down at the scientist. "I don't care, McKay, if Sam were here, she would have solved this damned thing already!"

"Listen to me, you...." Rodney was cut off by the appearance of the most wonderful thing he had ever seen in his life.

Entering the lab, Daniel slowed to a stop when Rodney just stared at him and the mug he was holding out. "Is there something the matter, Dr. McKay?"

Taking a deep breath, Rodney composed himself long enough to shake his head yes. "Colonel O'Neill was just getting the hell out of my lab and leaving me to my work." Taking the mug from Daniel, Rodney smiled at him gratefully. "Thank you for this. Have you been able to remember what exactly about the inscriptions on this device were familiar?"

"No, and that is what confuses me. I'm not sure if it was me or..." Daniel grimaced at the implied thoughts. "All I do know is that I have encountered something like this before. I know the writing is an ancient form of Latin used during the time of the Etruscans. Anything other than that and I am completely lost."

"Which is completely useless to me." Sighing in frustration, Rodney took the mug from Daniel and set it down on the lab table. There wasn't much else he could do at this time. All his immeadiet responce testing had proved useless, the long term testing required more time as implied by the name. So far, he was stumped by the golden box.

"Well, I'm sorry, Dr. McKay, I only wish I could be of more help." Leaning back against the counter top behind him, Daniel slid up on it. Since he had come back to his job, the people in the archeological department had been increasingly hostile towards him. It wasn't his fault they were completely wrong ninety percent of the time.

Realizing they had completely forgotten him, Jack just shook his head in disgust and walked out. It wasn't the first time in the past two weeks that those two had been lost in their own world. If this kept up, he would begin to suspect McKay of trying to seduce Daniel.

Like it wasn't bad enough that damned snake had been bedding him every time he came through the gate. Jack figured the man had taken advantage of the fact that Sha're had moved on without Daniel and used his emotions to seduce Daniel.

Jack stopped. That was a particularly bad memory to be going over while he was walking. Daniel had been near crippled with grief for the better part of five days. In those five days, he had refused to do more than roll out of bed to use the restroom. The first day, Jack had to drag him for that one. After the fifth day, Daniel had appeared in the cafeteria bright eyed and bushy tailed like his whole world hadn't been crushed.

That had made no sense to him until he saw Daniel look at that snake and Jack just knew. He knew ole Marty had seduced his kid just a surely as the snake seduced eve. Another thing he was fighting over, seeing Daniel as more than just another kid who needed protecting. The younger man's appearance wasn't helping that perception much. More than once he had to remind himself that Daniel was thirty years old, not ten.

It hurt to think about that too. Daniel's appearance was just a few years older than what Charlie would have been. He cursed the goa'uld for causing this and wished he had one here right now to strangle. Getting a strange look from a passing Lieutenant, Jack sent him a glare and moved on.

Back in the lab, Daniel watched Rodney scratch in every concievable place as he scanned over his data. He was just about to suggest the man try scratching in two hard to reach places simultaneously just to see if he could when Rodney glanced up at him. "What?"

"Is there a reason you are here?" Scratching at the area between his shoulder blades, Rodney tried not to sound pissed. He wasn't, but it was a good cover for what was starting to turn in to a real problem. "Not that I don't mind your presence, but, really, I do."

"Um, okay, I guess." Sliding off the counter top, Daniel made for the door. Not the first time someone else told him to get lost since he got back.

Reaching out, Rodney knew he had made a mistake this time. "Dr. Jackson!"

Daniel didn't bother responding. He shut the lab door by waving his pass pen over the sensor. It was an easy decision for his next move. Hands in his pockets, he wandered down the hall to the elevators. Lucky for him, the doors opened just as he arrived and he was able to step on with the minimal of fuss after letting a group of mechanical engineers off. He pressed the button for the ground level when the last of them stepped off.

"Daniel! Wait!"

That set him in to action. Daniel hit the door close to prevent Rodney from getting on. Another awkward conversation about people and their things he did not need. It was like being a kid again with all these people. They thought they knew everything and him nothing because he had been technically dead for a little over two years. It was more than frustrating.

After the lurch of the lift launching itself sky wards had settled, Daniel leaned back against the side of the car. Somethings were to be expected, it wasn't like he hadn't. But to be completely ignored day in and day out, despite his considerable contribution, it was beginning to feel like the entire thing wasn't worth it any more.

Soon enough the bell sounded and the doors were opening. He stepped out in to the empty lobby of the main base floor. It used to be teaming with people busseling about. He could still hear them in his mind if he tried. Walking off the elevator, he strolled down the corridor towards the entrance.

At least here, there was still a guard post manned. Most of the guard posts in the base were now automated and monitored from the control rooms. According to the newly promoted Colonel Maybourne, which was a shock in itself that the man was working with them, these new automated systems were more reliable than human guards, highly efficient, and extremely deadly. He could understand, the first time he had passed through one without the pass pen he had ended up stunned seven ways to Sunday.

Of course, that could also have been the trace ammount of naquadah still in his blood left over from hosting the dead parasite. Apparently it had been decaying in his body before he died and he absorbed parts of it. Now, there was just enough in his body for Maybourne's sensors to scream bloody murder if he didn't carry the damned pass pen. He had to admit, despite the downside on his part, it worked pretty well.

Giving over his security badge, he waited for the guard to clear him for leave. It took only a second, Maybourne had been here too. All badges were checked daily, all systems constantly updated through a central core that was not linked to any terminal. If you wanted to access the central computer core, you had to be on level 28, in the main security office, and use an independant computer. The central core, though not linked to the base intranet, controled most of the base's security protocols.

It was Maybourne's baby.

Jack had once told him he suspected at night the other colonel probably read it bed time stories. Of that, Daniel had no doubt.

His status had only been cleared a week ago to return to the surface. He remembered that event all too well. He had gone to Maybourne with orders from Hammond to let him go up top. The Colonel had typed in his new security clearance in one of the three consoles for the core. The core had downloaded the new security information to the mobile drives. Each mobile drive had to be carted to a check point and it's contents downloaded in to the check point's computer.

Manually was the only way to update the security check points. Another paranoid protocol brought to them by the mind of Maybourne. It also made sense, if you were a complete freak. No one could hack the base's security grid, no one could control every check point from remote locations. This meant that all the guards had been retrained as computer techs in order to do their jobs.

At least no where else could claim that even the guards were smart enough to rebuild a hard drive from scratch.

Taking back his pass from the security guard, he smiled at the other two men waiting near by with riffles and made his way towards the sky lift. The sky lift was another security station with its own protocols. When visiting or inhabiting aliens needed to be with nature, but not seen by human eyes, they went to the sky lift.

Stepping in to the red gridded zone, Daniel waved his pass pen over the sensor. A beep later and the floor beneath him was raising him towards a pair of steel girders above that were retracting with the ceiling. Warm sunlight rushed in as a powerful wind buffeted him. He inhaled deeply, the scent making it hard to ignore the beauty.

He put the thought from his mind to focus on the matter at hand. His reactions to certain stimuli, he was learning, were different than they had been before. For starters, he couldn't stand the taste of coffee any more, the mere thought of drinking it sent a wave of nausea so strong in him every time that he carried a tube of smelling salts to burn his sinuses just to get it for Rodney.

Gathering up his control, he stepped off the lift before it had completely reached the ground level. All around him were buildings carved from stone and wood in patterns not seen on earth ever. What had once been part of the mountain was now a town. A crystal structure over to his right was the housing for the resident Tok'ra. To his left was the forest homes of the only two living Nox. Directly ahead was the massive pyramid shaped green house built for the former host of Selmac. Behind him was the generator complex that powered the holographic field and shield that hid and protected it all.

Daniel sighed. It was hard not to get lost in the sensation of being outside here again. The Nox had been busy in their almost two years here. Most of the area was covered in what appeared to be old growth forest. It reminded him so much of the Nox home world that he could almost believe he was back there. Shaking himself out of it, he forced his body to move towards the crystal structure.

Growing out of the mountain side and up in to the air like a conk shell, the Tok'ra had created the first crystal building on earth. It was here that Earth's only permanent Tok'ra lived. Living in exhile, Selmac was forbidden to leave the base's perimeter, even to contact his host's family. Daniel couldn't really empathize, the snake had broken the law.

Besides, that wasn't who he had come to see anyways. Picking up his pace, he followed the stone path towards the crystal structure. He was half way up the path when a the crystal wall ahead of him melted to the ground and a figure stepped over the foundation. Heat welled up in him suddenly and Daniel found his clothes too hot. A smile quirked the corners of his mouth and he stopped just short of the other person.

"Hello, Jolinar."

"I've missed you, Martouf."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Standing in the open doorway of the reflecting pool room, Garshaw watched her mother's new host stare at her reflection. She would say it was vanity, if the queen hadn't been near catatonic since she was given the host. Standing beside her was the most annoying, yet, last, best hope. She had called him here to see if he could get Egeria to at least talk with them beyond giving orders.

"How long has the host been unresponsive?" Folding his arms, Paul leaned back against the wall. His gut twinged a little from memory of having the queen inside him. That was not an experience he wished to repeat.

"Two days. She refuses to even eat, now." Folding her hands in front of her, she let out a pent up sigh. Things were just growing worse in her opinion. If they were to begin saving any of the Jaffa, the immeadiet reproduction of more symbiots was essential. For that, this new queen would require the DNA of a mate. The very thought of contact seemed aborhent to Egeria, let alone sexual reproduction. If this did not stop soon, Garshaw had no doubt their plans would end in war. "You must see if there is anything you can do for you."

"I understand what you are thinking, but I highly doubt she will respond to me." At her stern look, he sighed. She could be a real bitch at times. "I'll see what I can do. Go, I don't want witnesses to my abasement."

"I will be near by, merely shout and I will come with help." Inclining her head, Garshaw backed out of the door way and down the hall.

Paul waited until she was out of sight before he moved off the wall and in to the chamber proper. Uncrossing his arms, he circled the new host. She was young, blonde haired, something he'd expect to be considered pretty on Earth, but not his personal opinion of beautiful. Her eyes were brown, something that he hadn't expected. After assesing the host for a moment longer, he bent down to the pool she was staring in.

Reaching out, he stuck his hand gently in the water. The surface rippled but the host remained in her position. "Enough of this kid gloves crap." Diving down deep, he brought his hands up and sent a wave of water splashing over her body.

Egeria gasped in shock from the cold water, falling backwards off her seat. Her chest heaving, her eyes glowed in anger. "How dare you!"

"Oh save it, sweet heart. I've had enough of this mind game bullshit from you already and I just got here." He splashed another, larger wave over her. This time, his wave caught her entire body where it was sprawled on the floor. "I have little in the way of patients as far as you are concerned. I had you in my gut for nine months, from day one you were nothing but a pain. I didn't let you get away with it then, and I'll be damned if I let you get away with it now."

Sitting up, she raised a hand to ward off another wave. "You know nothing of me, the horrors I have seen..." She was splashed again from the pool. "Cease and desist!" For her words she got two more splashes.

"Not so much fun when it is someone else driving you up the wall is it? Nine months of gut twitching, tooth scraping, snake slithering annoyance. You woke me at all hours of the day and night, I didn't get a good night's sleep for weeks after you were gone because I kept expecting you to wake me up." Growling, he stepped away from the slowly refilling reflecting pool. "I have no idea what your malfunction is, but I suggest you deal with it before I deal with you."

"That will be quite enough!" Coming to stand near the entrance of the chamber, Garshaw's eyes began to glow in annoyance. "Major, you will please leave."

"That's okay, I was through here anyways." Catching the host's smug look, he stared her down. "Don't think I am finished with you. If you don't cut this sulking shit out, I will be back, and I get a whole lot nastier." Storming past Garshaw, he walked out the same way he entered.

Staring down upon her mother's host, Garshaw tilted her head a little to the right. "Do you require anything, Egeria?"

"Dry clothing." Standing up, Egeria removed the sodden clothes and tossed them at the entrance in rage. Just as Garshaw started for the door, she growled. "Do not believe that this changes anything, Garshaw. My will is still the same, there will be no future prim'ta from my body or any other. The legacy of the Goa'uld ends with the death of the last Jaffa, be it natural causes or war."

"You would damn us all for your vanity?" Pausing in the doorway, Garshaw turned to face her.

"You would not exist but for my vanity and need." Moving back to her bench, she sat down upon it naked. "I see no point in picking up where the goa'uld left off to spare the lives of a few slaves."

"The Jaffa number in the millions. If you were to but produce a single clutch..." She was cut off by the glare her mother sent her way. Bowing at the shoulders, she walked from the room. Apparently it would take greater will than she could muster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taking his usual seat in front of the General, Jack began to fiddle with the arm rest of his chair. He almost had the tape they held the rest in place removed. After coming in to this office so many times in the past year, he had started to take the chair apart piece by piece. The maintenance staff had taken to using duct tape instead of replacing broken parts. That was a special mark of pride to him.

It was by far more satisfying than doing what he was here to do. Getting the call to finally come down here had been the worst feeling he had in two weeks. The last worst had been when they had suddenly announced that Carter had been transfered, without notification, from his team to head of off world technological studies. Basically it was just a way of saying she was being wasted on his team and they felt giving her a new title would keep her quiet.

Now, it was a similar situation. They had finally found a new replacement for Teal'c on his team. He knew it had been coming for two years. From the moment Daniel died, he knew a time would come when all his kids would leave him. Teal'c's work in training the Jaffa style troops had gotten him noticed by others of his race. So he was off being some big shot and the International Committee in charge of the budget for the SGC, the Colonies and all off world activities was tired of wasting money on him.

Looking up as the General entered from the side door, he frowned at the man. This was going to be an up hill battle and he didn't intend for it to be easy on his CO.

George took one look at the now completely demolished arm rest and shook his head. 'Time to put this puppy to rest.' Sitting down, he flipped through the foulders on his desk until he found the requisit file. "Here is the information on your new team mate. Read it, accept it. I suggest you get started, I've scheduled a mission for you starting tomorrow morning. He has a discipline problem, so he should be right up your alley. You're dismissed."

Jack just stared. That was it? All his built up bullshit was chucked aside by the General in a single paragraph. This was completely unfair. Standing up, he petulantly snatched the file away and stormed out of the office. He would be damned if he let dignity get in the way of his anger. He had been planning that bullshit speech for two years. It was a good bullshit speech. He had even done research for it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The slight tinkling of crystals impacting against one another drew Daniel in to consciousness. Inhaling deeply, he curled away from the warmth that half pinned him to the bed. He paused for a moment to stretch away the sudden cramps in his muscles. His out stretching arm hit the warmth and he opened his eyes.

Smiling at the sleeping face of his lover, Daniel settled back down on the bed. Cool blue light illuminated the chamber giving him plenty to see by. Hard muscles under soft skin, browned skin enhanced the beauty in his eyes. It was hard not to slide his arms around Martouf, to place his head against his chest. Resisting a lover's embrace was never his strong suit.

Too bad for whoever was trying to get ahold of them.

He was about to lay back down beside Martouf when the clinking turned in to the clatter of shattering glass. Someone had broken the seal on their private chamber. Reaching under the pillow off to his right, Daniel drew out a zat-nic-atel and aimed it towards the door.

The sounds of combat boots echoed in the chamber as Jack made his way in to the room, hand over his eyes. "Daniel! Time to get up, sleeping ugly."

"Funny, I could say the same about you." Putting the weapon back under the pillow, he slid out of the bundle of blankets and pillows on to the warm crystal floor. The moment his feet touched, the light in the room intensified and started to swirl as if reflected off water. "What do you want, Jack? It's too early for a friendly conversation."

"Actually, Daniel, it's late, as in the evening." Jack had turned his back when he was sure where Daniel was. This way he could lower his arm before it could start to lose feeling. "Unlike some people who can lay about having sex all the time, I actually have to work, and so do you."

"Oh really. Because last time I checked, tossing pencils at stuffed elephants and pretending you're a neanderthal didn't exactly qualify as work, Jack." Daniel grabbed the first piece of clothing he found and tried to pull it on. When it proved to be too stubborn, he tossed it back to the floor and grabbed something else. This time it was his size.

"One time, Daniel, and yes, it was work. Do you have any idea how hard it was to get those pencils sharpened so the flint tips could be attached?" Snickering behind him told Jack he got the reaction he wanted. He sighed with contentment, no matter what else changed, Daniel was always an easy mark. Putting that from his mind, he got down to business. "Hurry up, we got a new team mate to meet and a briefing to go over. Seems they finally pulled the plug on Teal'c and the General is being pressured to get our team back up and running to full force."

"A briefing? How soon before the mission?" Pulling up the first pair of pants he found, he couldn't be bothered that they were tight on his hips. Martouf would just have to wear something else. Zipping them up, he took his time to shove everything out of the way of the dangerous zip.

"Tomorrow morning. That is why the meet and greet and brief is tonight." After hearing the zipper, Jack faced Daniel. "Oh, for the love of... Can't you put on your own clothes?"

"If I could find them, yes." Passing by the grinding Jack, Daniel shook his head. It wasn't like he was to blame for Jack's hatred of all things Martouf. They had been fueding since before Daniel returned to the SGC. To him, the entire thing was just a big waste of time. Whatever had started it, there seemed to be no likely ending it.

Jack shook himself out of it. Following Daniel from the chamber, he sent a glare at Martouf's still body. "One day Marty."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Daniel, just keep moving."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Smiling down at the computer console, Harry typed in the new security code. This was going to be a real pleasure. He always did enjoy it when his enemies suffered for their incompetence. Finishing the coding, he entered his own security code and sent the information to all the mobile drives.

Like the perfect drones, his security personnel began to unhook the drives and push them away so they could upgrade the security database at each check point. They knew this routine well, had performed it twice already today. It was sheer perfection at work for Harry Maybourne.

Handing over the key card to the Captain, Harry smiled sweetly. "You do realize that they sent you to be here as a mole, right?"

Taking the key card, Captain Sheppard frowned. "I got that when they told me to report everything I saw and heard to them."

"And you will of course be a loyal little soldier and tell them everything you see here. A state of the art security system updated every two hours with new passwords and codes that they could never hope to break. The security in the vents is lethal to anything smaller than an elephant. We have anti-aircraft batteries in twelve locations, only four of those visible. We have a shield surrounding the base and over two hundred pounds of naquadah bombs waiting to be deployed." Sitting back in his large chair, Harry folded his arms behind his head. "Oh, there is also the fact that several of the security patrols are Jaffa equivilant, equipt with the most advanced weapons in the galaxy."

"I'll be sure to mention that, sir." John saluted the colonel with little enthusiasm as he wonderd just what the hell was so special about this place that they would send him here. He had been told very little about the posting, just that he was a covert observer. The fact that his covert mission was known by everyone was a real dampner. He had been hoping for a super secret spy mission, not an episode of 'Get Smart'.

When he had first learned that there were in fact Aliens and they were helping out the world governments, things started to make a little sense. There had to be an explanation for the success of reality television. It was obvious to him, Aliens were conducting expirements and wanted the world to know about it. It was a little hard to cover up something that every world power knew about.

He had yet to meet an alien, or so he thought. There was that one creepy guy at the gate who stared at him suspiciously and muttered about the one armed man. Whatever his deal was, it was beyond him to care about it. Just so long as he kept his special brand of crazy to himself, John could live with it.

Turning on heel, he strolled down the short pier to the heavily guarded entrance. Nodding to his escourt, he held up his badge to the guard.

The man didn't even glance at it while he opened the door.

Just out of curiosity, John glanced down over the arm rail of the small pier. He wished he hadn't afterwards. The pit below went down at least sixty feet. Inside it were the seven large spinning gears of the shield generator. Yet again, he wondered how such a large machine was put in below the mountain without so much as a peep.

John had been warned about Harry and his idiosycroncies before coming here. How the man had driven security and paranoia to new heights. He had expected the security command to be a fortress, but not the damned temple of doom. There was a safe bet that the pier he had just stepped off retracted or even fell in to the forcefield that protected the shield generator from above. A forcefield that would desintegrate all matter upon contact.

Shaking his head, he gestured for the escourt to take the lead on towards the briefing room. He had a new C.O. to meet. The journey was relatively short when compaired to the size of the base. However, Level 28 was also the largest level in the entire mountain. It encompassed the shield generator room, the security room, the gate room, the control room, and thirty storage rooms for the supplies necessairy for the upkeep for all those.

Soon, they were at the Control Room and he was taking the spiral staircase up to the Briefing Room. His first impression of the briefing room was the sheer size of the meeting table. The new one held room for twenty chairs in compairison to the old one which held only fourteen. The briefing room was bigger than he had expected and the wood paneling along the walls was a nice touch in his opinion, especially compaired to the dull cement of the base.

Sitting in the chairs closest to the briefing room window were four men he had only seen in their files and one he knew from when he first reported in at the base. Turning to the one he knew, he smiled. "General Hammond, sir, Captain John Sheppard reporting as ordered."

"Take a seat, Captain." Hammond gestured to the open seat next to him. To his right, beyond the empty seat, he gestured to the two men there. "These are Doctors' Daniel Jackson and Rodney McKay respectively, they are both on your team." He waited for them to nod at John before gesturing to the other two men on his left. "This is Colonel Jack O'Neill, your new C.O. and team leader. To his left is the man in charge of base medicine, Doctor Warner. You will be reporting to him for a complete physical after the briefing. If he approves, you will be heading out tomorrow for your first mission."

"What exactly are the details of this mission, General?" Daniel, having quickly dismissed the new man from thought turned his full will towards listening to what Hammond said. The fact that the scent from his tight pants kept waffing up every time he moved was proving a very difficult distraction. Martouf had wanted to get them off first, but Daniel had been too busy to do much beside jerk down the zipper on them before going down. He was moderately surprised no one else had noticed the smell.

Sitting beside him, Rodney kept glancing between Daniel and the new man. It would be easy to let himself get lost in contemplating both of them. Together. To himself, Dr. Rodney McKay the scientist was a brilliant, giant of a man. But the Rodney McKay was a sad man who spent far too much of his free time thinking about, watching, and critiqueing pornography. If they intended that crap to be anything but pisspoor smut, they had a lot to learn. The fact Daniel smelled like spunk also helped his fantasy.

Sheppard smiled at General Hammond and each man in turn. Sitting down, he smelled something that was oddly familiar, he just couldn't put his finger upon it. Catching Hammond messing with a remote, he gave the General his full attention. Then he sniffed again.

At the obvious sniff, Daniel cleared his throat and ignored the need to squirm. He was an adult. If people noticed a certian smell, that was their perogative.

Hammond cleared his throat next. He was well aware of Daniel's predicatment. He'd heard Jack and Daniel arguing about it on their way in to briefing room. He had been glad that by the law, he could basically ignore the entire situation. Aiming the remote at the far wall, the lights went off and he pressed the play button.

The entire back wall disappeared to be replaced by a dark, circular room large enough to be their own gate room. At the center of the room was the only illumination, a light that shown only enough to give off a circle on the floor. "This is an alien artifact. The planet this gate is on has been buried under magma for seven thousand years and shows no sign of letting up. How this chamber has survived is a mystery to us and the Tok'ra, our other allies are not speaking on its existance."

Daniel adjusted reached up for glasses that were no longer there. Frowning, he studied the holoimage. "I understand the significance of this kind of technology, sir, but what do you expect of us that our off world bases would not serve better at exploring?"

"This, Dr. Jackson." Pressing the next button, Hammond waited for the image to change locations. The back wall moved forward and the ground underneath the light moved up for them to see the circle. "Do you recognize these symbols?"

Before Daniel could respond, Rodney nearly exploded. "Those are some of the same symbols found on the device! We have to go there!"

"He is correct, some of them are the same symbols, but I have no idea what they mean." Staring at them distractredly, Daniel tried to place where he had seen the damned things before. Suddenly they started to spin and it clicked in his mind. "I've been there before."

"What?" Jack turned from being bored to suspicious of Daniel in a heart beat. "Tell me that it was you and not the little snake infestation you had."

"Sorry, Jack." Seeing the reactions of the other men, Daniel glanced back to the holoimage. "That planet, I have been there, or Jolinar had been." He frowned, trying to draw out more of the memory. When nothing else came, he sighed. "That is all I know, sir. I've been there. May be when we go I can recall more, but for now that is all."

"Very well." Hitting the power button, Hammond waited for the room to return to normal before continuing on. "Captain Sheppard, here, is your newest team mate. The Over Sight Committee has finally accepted Teal'c's leave of absence as a more permanent situation. They have decided that SG-1, as the front runner of the SGC, needs to spend more time in the field. To ensure that you are confident in your team and yourselves, I have set up a series of first run missions to help you adjust, tomorrow's is the first.

"You are to head to this planet and see if you can find anything of interest. The duration of the mission will be no longer than two hours. You will check in every thirty minutes or I will be sending in two teams of marines to retrieve you." Chuckling at John's expression, he slapped the man on the shoulder. "You will get used to this soon enough, Captain. The usual field packs will be distributed as well as the newest edition of Major Carter's Coiled Blasters. Don't stay up too long tonight, Gentlemen, you have an early morning. Dismissed!"

Hammond didn't wait for them to respond, standing up, he carried the remote with him towards his office.

"So." Jack studied John with a look of bored disinterest. "Welcome to our humble abode, try not to rial the dogs, wipe your feet on the mat, and be sure to tip your waitress." Standing up, he nodded at Sheppard's salute then walked out with Dr. Warner.

Sheppard turned to Daniel and Rodney with raised eyebrows. "So, you're Dr...." He didn't get to finish as McKay interupted.

"Yes, I am. Now, if you will excuse me, I have some preparations to make before this sudden and unexpected mission tomorrow despite my busy schedule!" Standing up, Rodney fled the room. Of course, the fact that he had a hardon strong enough to crack the new briefing room table had nothing to do with the fact he was making off like a bandit in the night.

"Well, I was going to say Dr. Jackson, I suppose it's good he didn't stick around long enough, hunh?" Sheppard smiled at Daniel, trying to be disarming. If he could at least get on this one's good side, he could complete at least part of the mission.

"Yes, I am Daniel Jackson. It is good to meet you, Captain Sheppard." Holding out his hand, Daniel leaned over to John.

He accepted the hand with gratitude. He was about to say he had previously heard about Daniel when that scent came back to him. Sniffing, he tried to identify it. "Do you smell that? What is that? I know I've smelled it before, I just can't place it at the moment. I know if I get off alone it will eventually come to me."

Daniel couldn't help it. He snorted at Sheppard's words. Taking back his hand, he stood up suddenly. "Look, I'm sorry, but I've got work to do. Jack has an office on level 19. I am sure you can find someone to guide you there if you need something. Excuse me, good bye." Standing up, he fled for the door at a fast walk. Moving through it, he was nearly broad sided by a rushing man. Daniel was about to apologize when he felt hands on his body, pulling him close. "Um..."

"Jolinar." Martouf wrapped his hands around Daniel's ass and guided him behind the briefing room door.

Seeing who it was, Daniel relaxed. "Martouf, what are you doing here?"

"I came to get my clothes back." Glancing down, he smirked at what he saw. "They are most pleasing on you, my mate."

Daniel let his head fall back against the wall with a groan. This was going to turn in to a repeat performance of earlier if he didn't stop Martouf. The first thing he had to do was extract his ass from the other man's grip and push him away slightly. "Not here, Martouf."

"Is there something I am interupting?" Standing in the doorway, John glanced around the metal door to smirk at Martouf and Daniel.

Martouf's eyes glowed before he could control his responce. "I was just coming to see Dr. Jackson. He and I have some... things to discuss. If you will excuse us."

"Sure, don't mind me." But Sheppard didn't move. So this was a Tok'ra. He had learned what one was after being told what a goa'uld was and that they were now extinct.

"Not here, Martouf." Shaking his right hand free, Daniel left Martouf's grip on his left hand remain and guided him away. "See you tomorrow morning, Captain."

"Yeah, tomorrow." Watching the two men leave, John had a feeling he had just witnessed something important. Something that could get him in a lotta trouble if anybody found out just how interested he was. Grunting, he adjusted the front of his uniform. "Yeah, this is going to be a fun assignment."

"You have no idea." Sitting in his control room, Harry watched John's body temperature rise, his electrical levels spike and his hands reach for his warming crotch area. He loved these new cameras, they picked up every detail. Petting his console, he tapped in a new command. The view on his monitor changed so that he was seeing the nurse's showers and all higher brain functions fled Harry Maybourne for a while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glancing down at the world beneath him, Teal'c felt the resignation fill him yet again. This had been the last stop on their tour of the border worlds in the former territory of Lord Yu. Far from being the busy port it had been, there was nothing left in this place. The palace at the center of the city was all that had been left standing and even that was dilapidated. Had he not known better, he would say this world had been abandoned centuries ago.

Turning away from the view port, he pressed the control orb to engage the hyper drive. A short time later, the vessel was thrown in to hyperspace. Glancing out the view port again, he watched the passing lines of the slip stream. It was a familiar sight he had forgotten how much he missed until this mission.

"That makes twelve worlds in this sector alone." Adjusting the sensor data to a storage crystal, Aldwin turned in his seat to face Teal'c. "Shall we continue on to the next world or move on towards Heru'ur's territory?"

Teal'c was about to reply when a flashing crystal on the central console caught his attention. Pressing it, he glanced to the main screen. Several goa'uld characters scrolled across. "It seems that the Jaffa of Enke have heard about the massacre of Ankar Waht and decided to press our promise for more prim'ta."

"We told them it would be another six months before Egeria was spawning, they should have waited as they agreed." Pulling up the data to his own screen, Aldwin frowned at the ultimatum. "They are going to attack others and us if we don't respond in the next five days." He grabbed the console in front of him as he was nearly thrown from his seat. "What are you doing?"

"I have grown weary of the treachery that has infected my fellow Jaffa. It is high time we did something about it aside from searching out more Jaffa." Imputting the new coordinates to the hyper drive, he brought them back in to hyper space. Accelerating the drives to full, he set them to automatic. "We shall reach the Tau'ri in two days. Then we shall see how they feel about breaking their word."

"You plan on using the Tau'ri as a threat to those Jaffa who disagree with you?" It was a plan that held merrit, but not one he would have agreed to.

"No." Standing, Teal'c moved towards the door. "I became aware of Egeria's reluctance to produce new prim'ta quite some time ago. Until now, I was willing to sit idly by and let others more qualified handle this, I can no longer do this. If your entreaties have failed, it is time for someone more pursuesive to act."

Aldwin could only silently agree with the leaving Jaffa. Pulling up the network signal to his fellow Tok'ra, he warned them of the possible Jaffa rebellion. If Teal'c failed, then they would be needed to send a clear message to all Jaffa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Actually, Captain, I am on loan to your government from the Canadian military, my posting here was conditional on their involvement in the Stargate project." Rodney smiled cheekily as he took a sip from his gingerale. The vodka his other companion was drinking did look tempting, but it was the night before a mission and he wasn't exactly the most sturdy drunk. "So, tell me, Sheppard, just what did you do to impress someone so that you earned such a prestigeous posting?"

"I'm a nark." Grimacing at his own cander, he smiled towards Daniel's vodka too. "Honesty above all else is my motto. Seems, I got myself a reputation for exposing scandals. That's the reason I am still just a captain and not a major."

"A well earned one, if I read your file right." Unlike the others, Daniel had no problem with vodka or any other drink for that matter. Once you had the daily brew of bread beer produced by the Abydoseans for over a year, everything else just seemed like water. Tossing back his third glass of the night, Daniel grimaced. "Jack, are you sure they haven't done anything to this, I can barely taste it?"

"What?" John just stared at him. "Are you telling me you've downed three of those so far and all you can do is complain about the taste?"

"Oh, it gets better, trust me." Jack signaled for the waitress. Turning to Daniel, he shook his head in disgust. "Don't embarrass me again, hunh?"

"Oh, one time, Jack, one time. It is hardly my fault that guy couldn't handle a simple drinking contest." Seeing Rodney and John's curious expressions, Daniel gave them his undivided attention. Using hand gestures, he pointed all over the bar. "Jack had them lined up one by one, they thought it was a trick of some kind. One man even dragged me off to the bathroom to check for a funnel or some place where I could store the drink."

"He cleared out the entire stock of vodka, wouldn't touch anything else, said it smelled bad," Jack finished with a pinched face. "The bottles weren't the only things he cleaned out."

"Again, not my fault. A fool and his money is soon parted. Or a drunk in this case." Chuckling, Daniel handed the waitress his cup and accepted the replacement drink. He was getting wildly animated now, sloshing some of his drink on the table as he gestured. "Like I said, one guy dragged me to the bathroom to check. I had to pee, so it wasn't like it was a real hardship being man handled towards that way. Well, I was standing there recycling cheap vodka..."

"And the man is lighting a cigarette to stick to Daniel skin for interrogation and I bust in about then. He jerks Daniel about and Daniel pisses all over this guy's cigarette." Snorting at the memory, Jack smacked Daniel on the shoulder. "He pisses on this guy's cigarette and instead of dowsing it, the entire thing catches on fire and the man burns his hand in the liquid flame."

"I told you it was cheap, Jack." Finishing off the forth drink, Daniel gasped. "Well, I get rushed back to the base, Jack thinks something is wrong with me. They run a complete battery of tests on me and find out it was all for nothing." Holding up the glass, Daniel shook it towards the other two men. "It seems my body can't process liquor anymore. It just runs right through me. Speaking of right through me, excuse me!"

Sheppard watched Daniel race to the bathroom with a half grin on his face. "Are you guys leading me on?"

"No, not at all." Taking a sip of his own drink, Jack smirked towards John and Rodney. It was all in the timing. He glanced down at his watch as he mentally calculated the count down. 'Three, two....'

"Ahhhhhh," was followed by the fire alarms going off.

"Not again." Sighing, Jack stood up. Now to the fun part. He only glimpsed at the other two men as they stared in alarm towards the bathroom. Moving away from the table, he quickly walked to the bathroom. "Hold on, Daniel, I'm on my way!" On the way, he heard the other two men's chairs scraping the floor followed by their footsteps.

By the time he reached the bathroom door, Jack was already losing the battle to his chuckles. He pushed open the door and was nearly bowled over by the smell of scorched hair. "Daniel! Are you all right?"

"I think so, Jack, but this guy is going to be bald for a while." As the door was pushed open by Rodney and John, Daniel held up the little doll with the scorched hair. Tossing it to John, he pushed passed the two men. "It was Jack's idea."

Jack couldn't respond to the accusation because he fell from the side of the stalls to the tile floor laughing.

Rodney's eyes narrowed. Stalking back to the table, he picked up Daniel's glass and sniffed it, much to the amusement of the bar's patrons and staff. "This is water!"

"Actually, it was five parts water, one part vodka." Taking the glass from Rodney, Daniel laid an arm around his shoulders. "Very poor drinking, you have no idea how hard it was to swallow it." Leaning in close, he whispered in Rodney's ear, "welcome to the team."

For that moment, Rodney found it very hard to concentrate on anything else. Coughing, he brushed off Daniel's arm. "Yes, well, I hardly call this a welcome."

"Like I said, this wasn't my idea." Glaring over his shoulder at the wheezing Jack and the grinning John, Daniel shook his head. "Personally, I would have gone for the alien bursting from my chest, but Jack couldn't get ahold of enough fake blood in time."

Rodney could only stare as Daniel walked over to relieve the captain of his burden and escorted Jack from the bar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Turning up the music as the next song started to play, Sam swayed slowly to the beat. Holding the half empty glass to her chest, she closed her eyes. It just wasn't the same. She pressed the volume button again, driving the music up so loud it was vibrating the fabricated wooden floor beneath her feet.

It had been an eventful day in the lab and she felt like celebrating. Nothing quite felt like being able to successfully build something almost completely alien. They were using earth technology and had finally fine tuned a generator that could actually provide a back up system to the Tok'ra provided equipment. Her best efforts weren't quite good enough to be a possible main power source just yet, but they were on the right path.

That was worth celebrating.

Putting a little more swing in her dance, she tossed her growing hair. In the past two weeks she had decided that her already chin length hair could finally grow out again. Twirling her hair over her knuckles, she twisted it in to a curl. "I wonder what I would like with curls." The music drowned out her voice and she let go of her hair.

Noticing that the glass was half empty, she downed the rest of the liquid and moved back over to her open liquor cabinet. Adding more ice cubes and of the scotch, she hummed tunelessly along with the music. There was bound to be a good song coming up next, she had heard this CD enough to know that, and she wanted to be prepared to dance to it.

Tomorrow she had to fix the generator's cooling coils and replace a broken power node on the original generator so the mining could continue in sector 7G. Sam absently wondered if the fat man in charge of safety was actually as competent as he seemed or if he was lazy oaf. Perhaps she would install a security camera in there to keep an eye on him. Safety was important if she wanted to continue living on this rock.

Suddenly her song came on and her thoughts switched back to dancing. It was better this way. Swinging her hips, she jammed along with the heavey metal that tried to make her deaf and probably would if she wasn't wearing specially designed earplugs. So what it would drive her neighbors batty, who were they going to complain to, the air? Birds and animals would just have to learn to get along with her music or get going.

The opening of her door caught her attention and she moved over to it, hand out to accept the already lit joint. Gesturing to the cabinet, she waved Petrikov and Merryl in. "Time to party!" Shaking along with the music, Sam bounced back to stand in front of the radio. It was definitely going to be a busy night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fighting the urge to scream, John tightly clutched his P-19. While the other three men were easy going about the sight of the gate springing in to existance, John was about to piss himself. So he had heard all about it, the very real existance of it in front of him he had not been prepared for. This was going to take some getting used to.

Jack watched his new team members with some trepidation, their first mission through the gate as a whole and he wasn't sure what to expect from them. "All right, campers, lets move out."

"Yes, sir." Falling back in to his training to overcome his fear, John saluted and moved up the ramp towards the gate behind Daniel. Since the training wasn't exactly doing the trick, he decided to focus on the way Daniel's pants clung to his ass. He remembered what it was like to be that young, how a tight pair of pants were a guy's best ticket to getting laid. Granted, thirty-two wasn't old, but it wasn't young either.

Yes, the eighties were a good time to be young in. Fast cars, loose women, MTV, all that and suspenders were cool. Before he knew it, John was splashing through the event horizon and his body was freezing. Falling through the other side, he shivered. "What the hell was that?"

Rolling to a stop next to John, Rodney had his own shakes to deal with. "That... was the..."

"First trip through the worm hole is always a little rough." Standing off to their right, Daniel ignored them in favor of studying the circle of light in the center of the black room. "Don't worry, your next trip through should be a lot smoother."

"That's comforting." Frowning, John beat at his arms while sitting up. It was a moment more before he got any feeling back in to them.

"Well, that is all I can offer, sorry." Holding out his camera, Daniel began to scan the inside of the chamber searching for entrances. "Do feel free, when you can, to help me search for an exit." Moving around the chamber, he avoided the light. A part of him felt like that it was the smart thing to do.

Having had enough of this, Rodney slowly climbed to his feet. When he fell back down, he cursed and rolled in to the circle of symbols on the floor. "Damn, ow!"

Behind Daniel, the black wall rippled and a black disc appeared on the surface with a glowing circle in the center. Hearing the sound, he turned around, hand going to his weapon's holster. Catching Jack's eye over the camera, he motioned towards the black disc.

"I see it. Go ahead, I'll cover you." Having pulled his own power coil, Jack aimed it towards the disc. His P-19 would have been preferable, but there was no doubting the effect of Carter's little toy.

Bringing the camera up so he could record it, Daniel scanned it from a distance first. He frowned when the camera suddenly went static. Directing its lense away from the disc, the image returned to normal. "I can't record it with the camera, it must be putting off too much energy interferance."

"Then I should examine it first!" Rodney tried to sit up again only to find that his body still refused to stop shivering. Teeth chattering, he glared at the stargate.

Jack checked McKay over once then shook his head. "Go ahead, Daniel. McKay, it will still be waiting for you when you get up to it."

"Fine, but any discoveries are named after me!" Shaking again, Rodney laid back down. This was positively the worst feeling of his life. How damned cold was it in this chamber that he still couldn't warm up enough. Much to his anger, Sheppard was already on his feet.

Daniel rolled his eyes. Stepping up to the disc, Daniel studied the out side ring for any symbols. There weren't any that he could find and the whole thing was beginning to drive his inner sense insane. Glancing up at the colored glass in the center of the disc, he was hit with Jolinar's memory of this chamber.

There were twelve of them, only four human. They had fled through the gate to avoid the System Lord Ra's grasp in to this unknown gate address. One of their group had passed through the light and moved towards the disc. He had placed his face to the disc.

Eyes widening, Daniel tried to back away from the disc, but the black substance of the disc reached out faster than he could move and enveloped his head. He brought his fists up, trying to knock it free but it tightened until it solidified around his head and neck. Bright flashes of light filled the glowing glass and his eyes were forced open. Just as suddenly as it started he found himself falling to the ground of the chamber.

"Daniel!" Rushing to his friend's side, Jack raised his weapon to fire upon th device. He soon found his hand restrained by another, softer one. Glancing down, he saw who it was and glared. "McKay, I swear, if you don't let go!"

"You can't destroy it! If you do, we won't be able to find out what happened to Daniel." Climbing to his feet, he used Jack as a pole. The shivers had subsided for the most part. Gaining in strength, he forced Jack's weapon down so they could lift Daniel to his feet. "We have to help Dr. Jackson."

"Fine. But if that thing starts to attack us again, you're my shield." Bending down, he placed one hand under Daniel's arm to drag him away. "Get our backs, Captain! McKay, dial Earth!"

"I'm fine, Jack." Shaking his head, Daniel tried to stop the world from spinning. His head was throbbing and his tail bone hurt where he had fallen on it, but other wise he felt fine. Being dragged by his friend wasn't good for his tail bone. "Let me go, I can walk by myself!"

"Not now, Daniel we have to get out of here. Why aren't you dialing the gate, McKay?" Hauling Daniel to the gate steps, he glared over his shoulder at Rodney. This wasn't the first time the man had defied him, but it would be the last time.

Grabbing Jack's fingers, Daniel twisted until he was quickly dropped. Rolling over, he crawled to the DHD and started pounding on the symbols. When he raised his head to see Jack, he returned the frown. "They don't know the symbols yet." Putting one foot under him, Daniel thrust himself in the air. Then he nearly keeled over as he collapsed half over the controls. "I hate my life." Reaching to his wrist, Daniel activated the IDC.

As the gate activated, Jack felt non plussed about the entire situation. These people, these wacky rejects were his team. This was it, someone up there definitely hated him. Grabbing Daniel by one arm, he helped the man stand up and stumble up the steps towards the stargate. On the other side of the worm hole, the gate room was filled with the standard Marine gunners for a mission gone wrong. He caught the General's eye through the glass and nodded at Daniel.

Shaking his head, Hammond pressed the call button. "Welcome home, SG-1. Report to the infirmary for check ups then the briefing room for debriefing." He was about to release it when an old feeling came over him, something he hadn't felt in a long time. "Just like old times, I see."

Daniel waved at him, or it might have been flipping him off, he couldn't really bring himself to care either way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buttoning up his shirt to the collar, Daniel tried to fight off the urge to sneer in anger. These clothes they gave him in the infirmary were always too big. Nothing since he had returned drove him this batty. It was as if they deliberately did this just to see if he would blow a gasket. It wasn't until he noticed the name tag hanging off the cuff button did he understand. "Right, I guess these are my clothes."

"Yes, Dr. Jackson, did you wish us to get you something else?" The attending nurse did her best not to stare at Daniel over her clip board. He was just so adorable in his too large shirt and pants. It reminded her of her nephew in his dad's clothes.

Daniel didn't like the gleam in the woman's eyes one bit. He had a sneaking suspicion about the kind of people hired in to the medical profession here. They all seemed to lack something that made them completely sane in one fashion or other. Janet had been super smart, Dr. Warner was robot emotionally, Dr. Gylespie sucked the filling out of reese's cups before throwing them away. Normal was not something they could be called.

Frowning, he slipped in to his old jacket. These were his predeath clothes, it was no wonder they didn't fit anymore. They were designed for a body that was larger in the shoulder and broader in the body, a body with the muscles one earned from training. It had only been a month, he couldn't be expected to have reached the same mass he was before he took a two year nap.

The very notion that he gained muscle mass that wasn't exactly necessary for his archiological profession would have seemed pure vanity at one time. Now, it just seemed like a pain in the ass not to be able to move like he used to. He would be glad when the work out routine got him back to himself.

Moving away from the annoying nurse, Daniel headed for the infirmary exit. Warner had said he could go after getting dressed. They had run the full battery of tests including a CAT scan and found nothing unusual. So far, all he could think of was the low level of dread his reptile mind attached to the memory of the alien device. The snake that had taken control of him didn't have an irrational fear of it, there had to have been a damn good reason for it to react this way. Not that he could remember, damned memory was shot to hell.

He wasn't about to tell the others about the memories either. Last time he had, they had him locked up in a padded cell with old Doc MacKenzie and his pet farm trying to rake through Daniel's memories of the infestation. A lot of fun that had been. Twenty-six hours of hell he would rather not relive.

Realizing he was still standing there like a fool, Daniel moved around the nurse and for the door. There were other important things he needed to do, like go over the camera's footage in order to understand what had happened to him. Obviously his memory wasn't going to be a big help. When the door opened, he wondered how often it malfunctioned.

There were servos involved, it just occured to him that they might have been here a long time and need replacing. The technology upgrades hadn't reached as far as the automatic doors yet. Perhaps he could lend a hand, he had spent enough time in Rodney's lab lately enough to know a thing or two.

Picking up his pace from a slow walk to just under a jog, he headed for the elevators. Jack had said the debriefing would start when he was ready, which was convenient because he wanted pop in to the archeology department first. The elevator also seemed to take forever. It took Daniel several seconds to realize the lift wasn't going to respond to his thoughts. As he pushed the button to summon it, he chuckled over the silly idea of calling the elevator with a thought.

The elevator ride down to his science level wasn't very interesting. Nor was the walk to the labs. He filled it with quiet thoughts over what exactly the symbols could mean. Waving his pass pen over the lab security check point, he waited for it to open the door. When nothing happened, he stared at it in confusion. He waved it over the sensor again and again, nothing happened.

Daniel sighed in frustration, figuring it might be broken. He would have to stop by the security office after the debriefing. His third and final try had the same result. Shaking his head, Daniel moved back for the elevator. This time he did remember to press the button.

Level twenty-seven was the level the briefing room was on. Moving down the corridors, he noted how heavily guarded the place was. All the excess security had been there when he had been brought back, it just felt like the first time he was noticing them. So many people, it was all so hard to believe there was room.

The briefing room was filled with the expected people. Dr. Warner was back next to Jack, Maybourne beside him. On the other side of the table Rodney and John had left him the empty space next to General Hammond. Grimacing, he took the chair, nodding to Hammond. "General."

"Well, now that we're all here, SG-1, would you care to explain what happened that you were nearly dragging one of your members home again?" Staring at each member in turn, he tried to hide the fact he was highly amused by the prospect of their reputation still holding true. In the past three years he had been running this place, a lot of changes had been made. It was good that some things could be counted on still.

Watching Daniel, Jack took a deep breath. "As usual, it's all Daniel's fault, sir. We were all minding our own business when he looked at something he shouldn't have and got his head stuck. Just as we were about to shoot it, the thing released him and now we are all here. I am sure the Doc can tell you what went on inside Daniel's head, as I'm sure there has to be something other wise he's just a walking disaster."

"Thank you for your vote of confidence, Jack." Daniel crossed his arms and sat back in his chair to give said man his evil eye. He crossed his arms because he had the sudden urge to strange the life from the bastard. "In actuality, it was Dr. McKay who activated the archive. He did so by rolling across the circle of light. It was motion activated."

"I did?" Rodney was surprised his voice could reach that high. Clearing his throat, he stared at Daniel. "What archive?"

"The device imbedded in the wall is an archive of information. The function of which is to download the entire knowledge of the extinct species, known to us simply as the gate builders, in to the brain of those unfortunate enough to look inside. The effects of which are quite immeadiet and irreparable." Daniel finished speaking as he rubbed at the back of his neck. Realizing what this meant, he grimaced. "Oh crap."

"Oh crap?" Jack raised an eye brow. This was in the Daniel Manual under do not use. "I take it that is geek for very bad?"

"Yes, this is very bad." Frowning, he forced himself to let go of the scar. "Or at least it partially is." The looks of the others made it clear he had to elaborate quickly. "The good news is, no one is going to get hurt. The bad news, I think I am remembering."

"Remembering..." Realization hit Jack. "Oh crap." He moved quickly to keep Warner from moving, settling a hand over the man's shoulders. "Stay put, you. There's no need to get the boys in white in here, just yet."

"I wouldn't think about it." His tone implied Warner was lying.

"It isn't much, General Hammond, it just comes to me when I'm not thinking about it. Like something you've forgotten that was unimportant at the time, but when you aren't thinking about it but need it, it pops up." So, that was the extent of his verbal skills after over twenty-eight years on this planet. Truly pathetic in his mind. Daniel shook his head. "The point I am trying to make is that all my inherited knowledge is trapped and only comes out when I'm focused on something that it might have information on. I knew what the archive would do the moment I looked in to, but not before I could stop it."

George would just have to take this one on blind faith. "So what exactly are the effects that make it irrepairable?"

"In theory, the mind would be damaged by the sudden overload of knowledge." By now, Warner was intrigued. He still intended that Daniel get a work up, again, but this new information was proving to be worth his time.

"Not theory. That archive put it in to application over two thousand years ago." Closing his eyes, Daniel tried to hang on to the memories associated with the archive. Some were there, but a lot were missing. He had to settle for what he could immeadietly get out. "There were four humans with us, they are needed for it to activate and work. The archive is warded against Goa'uld and Jaffa. One of the humans approached the archive and had his face encased. Within minutes he was completely incoherent, rambling about the archive and gate, how they were made by the same people. He was catatonic in an hour's time and dead by the end of the day."

Looks of distaste and horror were shared around the table.

"His mind wasn't strong enough to withstand the effect of so much knowledge. Since then, that world has been avoided by the goa'uld. The fact I once hosted one protected me from the effects of the archive. Whoever created the device, knew of the goa'uld and took precautions against their knowledge falling in to their hands." A brilliant flash of light behind his eyes signaled the start of a headache to join the one he had from the mission. "Dr. Warner, if you wouldn't mind, I would accept something now, if that's okay with you, General."

"Go ahead, son. Be sure to mark all this down and whatever you can remember in your mission report. You and Dr. Warner are dismissed." Hammond sat back in his chair, politely waiting for them to leave.

Standing, Daniel glanced over at Maybourne. "Colonel, I can't seem to get in to my lab, is the sensor malfunctioning?"

Checking his hand held device, Maybourne frowned. "Actually, Dr. Jackson, you've been moved from the main Archeology lab to a secondary one on level 15 near the Technologies department. Authorization signed by Dr. Weissman and approved by the head of the division, Major Gussman."

"What?" Jack was the first to speak up, but he wasn't the only one to react in anger. Turning on Harry, he nearly came out of his seat. "What's the big idea behind this crap, Harry?"

"I didn't do this, Jack." Using the wand that came with the device, he back tracked through the system codes. "Someone's been playing the shell game with my security authorizations." Standing, Harry closed his device and put it back in his pocket. "If you will excuse me, General, I have a flunky that just earned himself a one way trip to hell, express. No one fucks with my machine."

"Don't bother, I'd prefer to work alone anyways." Moving for the door, Daniel nearly broke the handle to get it open. He was followed by Harry and Warner.

Hammond slid a hand over the lower half of his face. This was getting out of hand. "Colonel, get your team's mission reports on my desk ASAP. Captain, tell Major Gussman that I would like to see him and this Dr. Weissman in my office immeadietly. I'll schedule the follow up briefing for friday. Dismissed."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stepping to the center of the Curea hall, High Chancelor Trevelle crossed to her seat at the head of the Curea. Of the fifty-nine member governing body, she was the most important and they would not start the meeting without her. Taking her seat, she banged the gavel to start the meeting. "We may begin anew."

Stepping forward, the gray haired Jhuatal carried the crystal page that read off his agenda for the assembly. "We are instructed by the conflaguration that planets in the Obedos sector of space might contain trace ammounts of Trinium. While our resources here on Tollana do not appear to be jeopardy for the next two generations, one day our supplies will run low. They caution that we do not lose sight of possible new sources."

"Agreed." Smiling benevolently at the represenative of the conflaguration in the booth next to Jhuatal, Trevelle inclined her head. "Is there any further recomendations that they wish to present at this time, member?"

Jhuatal shared a look with the represenative and nodded. "There is. Conflaguration requests the resources to launch an expedition to planet 20140589 for the survey and establishment of mining. A recent scan provided that a large deposite of Tritanium Ore has been located on the planet's surface. Since there is a scare quantity on Tollana and our ships are in need, they offer that we obtain it before it becomes critical."

A quiet approval of a well presented offer spread through the Curea.

Trevelle, sensing the acceptance, nodded. "The conflaguration may have one survey craft at their disposal. If the scans of Tritanium Ore are proven, they may approach the Curea for mining ships and equipment again in one year's time."

Jhuatal was not entirely pleased with the recommendation, but accepted that was the nature of the Curea. Their time was better spent on more urgent matters than the mining of a far distant world that may or may not hold a necessary elemant. True, the Tritanium was necessary, but they were not about to need more than what they had. Sitting down, he smiled at the conflaguration represenative. They had done good today.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Running a hand through his still wet hair, Daniel tried not to let show his anxiety over the new location of his lab and office. It was made harder by the fact that he had to ask twice to even find the damned thing. He could hardly fault the archeology department for their choice of Siberia. Then again, he could hate them all with a burning passion for this snub.

It wasn't his fault that everything they thought they knew was wrong and that every thing they were supposed to know they were completely clueless on. There were certain things you had to accept before you became a part of this project that so many of the people here refused to acknowledge. The fact that the ancient gods were real, they still disputed. Many of the people here had come after the goa'uld were gone, so they believed the tells to be fanciful at best.

What gauled him the most was the fact these bastards had complete control over everything that went to the committee. That had been a surprise to him, that there was a committee deciding what was worth exploring and what was not. If it wasn't approved by the committee, it didn't happen, period. That was another thing he was angry over.

What was once an appeal to an intelligent man who saw the need in exploration had turned in to just another business venture bogged down in bureacracy. To put it simply, it was purely rediculous. They had to submit forms, they had to submit a grant purposal, they had to make a full presentation, a cost effectiveness, proove the whole thing was cost effective, make sure the insurance forms were completed, and heaven help them if something came up that put them over budget. What kind of moron had instituted these kinds of changes?

He wasn't sure, he hadn't gotten past the requisition forms for clearance so he could access those files. It was as if they had deliberately set it up so that he could get no where. Then again, these were the people who were in charge of the largest deficet in the world.

Sighing in frustration, Daniel glanced about his new lab. A talk with Harry and his personal inventory check list had netted him everything from his old labs and apartments. Most of it had been in storage, but some of it had been mysteriously doled out to other base scientists. That had been a bigger bullshit story than most of the crap they believed in.

It was so neatly done, everything of his in neat little boxes spread around the room. It was all nicely labeled, efficiently placed in their boxes that too were labeled. He would just have to check on the list and there it was, the location and the box it was stored in. Very military. Though, he would deny it upon pain of death, Daniel found the efficiency a good idea.

Setting the delicate PDA down on his lab top, he moved towards his camera. At least while he was here, he could get the digital work up done for his post mission report. Checking the power supply, he was happy to find that there was enough juice left in it to allow the download to his laptop. Next came the digital images. That was where his rage spiked and had Daniel throwing the camera at the wall.

All of it had been erased.

Storming to the side of his lab where the comm switch had been installed, he clicked the red security button. "Let me speak with Colonel Maybourne, now!"

"I am sorry, Dr. Jackson, but the colonel is in a security briefing at the moment." The female voice on the other end of the line was military efficient as well. "How may I help you in his stead?"

"The data in my camera from my mission has been deleted. I want to know who had access to my camera." Releasing the switch, he clenched his hand in anger. He absently wondered just who he was going to kill first.

"That information is classified level 5, you are only cleared for level 4, Dr. Jackson." Her voice only slightly wavered in a show that stating the obvious was beneath her.

"What is your name?" Pulling out a pad and paper, Daniel readied to write it for her tomb stone. The bullshit had finally gone too far.

"Sorry, Dr. Jackson, but you are not authorized for that information. Please contact us again if you have any thing to report of importance." The speaker in the wall whistled then shut off.

Gritting his teeth, Daniel closed his eyes and tried to fight off the increase in his head ache. Unable to calm down, he lashed out in a fit of anger to the closest object, the call button. Grabbing it by the face plate, he ripped it off the wall. When the face plate crumpled in his hand, he glared at the wall socket.

Inside the socket were extra wires and plugs. He recognized the function of several of them, one being a wall port for a modem. Grabbing his laptop and the modem wires, he plugged them in to the socket. Daniel set about accessing the local intranet with speed that surprised even himself. The encryptions were surprisingly easy to override.

Once he had full access, Daniel brought up the intranet information to see what he had access to. It was the communications net for the science labs. Imputting the data for the archeology department, he called up the material handling lists. Who had handled his equipment after he had handed it over to the archeology department before going to the infirmary?

Two names came up, one was the security officer who had delivered it to him and the other was his new archnemesis. Dr. Weissman had been a very busy lady recently. Calling up her personal computer files, he was hardly surrprised to find copies of several of his files. He also found his missing camera footage. It was so badly degraded that nothing he could access was worth any information. She had saved them to the smallest size and then changed their format several times for what he assumed was security reasons, thus corrupting them beyond repair.

His entire mission had been a waste of time. Realization filled a part of his mind that wasn't bent on retribution that this woman was a fucking bitch for no apparent reason, at least not one he could think of. Daniel quickly back tracked to the start of her files, a plan already forming in his mind. Since she felt the need to make his life as complicated as possible, he could at least return the favor.

It was a simple matter to access her translator program, no doubt created to help the lazy cow do something she could never hope to do on her own meager credits. He had snooped at her personal file while there, two degrees, one doctorate. Pathetic! Typing out the string for her personal archive address in the translator's imput, Daniel snickered to himself. He was going to get in trouble for this, that was a given.

It took him a moment to decide what language he was going to use. Anything already in the translator could concievably revert the text back to English. It would require a new language with unknown characters. He had a device for this. Much to his surprise, they had spared him enough funds to aquire for him a drafting pad linked to the computer. You drew the image on it and the computer displayed it for you.

Quickly plugging it in to the laptop multiport adapter, he picked up his pace. It wouldn't be long before someone found him in their computer files considering how anal Maybourne was. Activating the drafting board on the laptop, he began to draw the characters and save them to the translator program. After all eight-six characters were imputted, and their values attributed to their english counterparts, he activated the translation key.

It took six minutes before all the database was translated. Saving it to a sub directory, Daniel deleted Dr. Weissman's personal database. He then set up the translated version in its place. One last access of the translator program had him erasing the language from its database and his use of it. He then back tracked through the SGC's mainframe and out of it.

When he signed off the intranet, he closed the laptop quickly and leaned back against the counter. His body shook from adrenaline over his illicit actions and fear of being caught. Laughing, he had to clutch the table top to prevent himself from falling over. The sudden opening of his lab door startled Daniel so much he lost his grip and fell to the floor.

It was a slightly amused Rodney that stood over the cackling Daniel. "What do you find so funny, Dr. Jackson?"

"Hello, Rodney!" Daniel waved at the man from his place on the floor. He seemed to find that highly amusing and cracked up further. Blinking through the tears, Daniel peered at the other man. "How can I help you?"

"I was just coming over to see if you were settling in all right and if you had anything to keep you busy." Glancing about the lab, at the Spartan conditions, Rodney made 'hmm' sound. "I see they weren't even decent enough to give you a snack bar."

Daniel exploded in to laughter again before putting on a serious expression. He tried for an authoritive tone. "I'm pretty sure granting that would bring about the apocalypse, Dr. McKay."

"Probably right." Clapping his hands together in anticipation, Rodney smiled upon Daniel. "What say we get to work on some of these devices that have mysteriously turned up on my work bench in the past twenty-four hours?"

Observing at the way Rodney nervously avoided looking him in the eyes, Daniel began to wonder just why he was so uncomfortable around him. "Is there any thing specific you need my help with?" He saw Rodney was about to spook and head back out and ammended what he was saying. "I mean, if there is something specific you will need my help on, I have to get my books. They aren't light and I want to make sure I get the right ones."

"Oh, um, not really. I was just kind of hoping you could solve... Actually, I was bored and wanting some company!" Rodney slapped a hand to his face leg in frustration, looking up. "Sorry, that came out a little loud. I was serious about the company thing. Plus, there might actually be something you could do in there." Glancing about the lab, Rodney once again noted the bare lab tops. "That is if you aren't busy."

"No, I'm free." Gesturing at the floor around him, Daniel giggled again. "You mind giving me a hand up?" In anticipation, he held up a single hand.

"Sure." Rodney took the hand, braced his legs and jerked with all his might. Much to his surprise, Daniel came flying up off the floor and directly at him. Eyes about to pop out of his head in surprise, Rodney brought up his other hand to catch Daniel before the both colided. Rodney fell over backwards with Daniel on top of him with a whomph.

Daniel quickly rolled off Rodney. Grasping the labtop, he tugged Rodney to him. His hands rand over Rodney's body searching for damage despite the fact he too was out of breath. Finding nothing out of place, he released Rodney. After he caught his breath once more, he whispered at Rodney. "Sorry about that."

"My fault!" Grunting in pain, Rodney climbed to his feet. He waved Daniel off when he tried to provide assistance. "Let's not touch each other. It seems we are too dangerous."

"Let's go see about your lab equipment." Trying to be cheerful, Daniel climbed to his feet and aimed for the door. He was followed by a limping Rodney.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Watching Laia plant flowers in the stone box at the center of the pyramid, Martouf tried to summon some emotion other than the reluctant grief. It seemed that every time he came to this planet a heavy weight settled over his chest and would not disappate until several days after he left again. He had tried talking about it with Selmac, but the elder was spending most of his time avoiding all contact but for that of the Nox. Which explained why he was here again.

Martouf hated spending time with the Nox, it always brought a clearer focus to what his own people faced if the queen did not reproduce. At first they had been happy that she was among them. They had over looked the lack of enthusiasm on her part for being with them as trauma from the newness of it all. But the whispers started shortly after the first time they asked her when she would breed.

That was part of the reason behind his visit this time to this planet. He would once again plead his case to their sire and ask that he return if only just to speak with Egeria for them. The Council had been adament that once Selmac came back and talked with her, he would go straight back in to exhile on Earth. That had been his punishment for taking the host.

He stepped up beside Selmac's younger host and smiled. The fact that his sire's host was attractive was put from his mind the instant it came to him. There was an important reason he was here. When it seemed Selmac was going to ignore him, he cleared his throat to get Selmac's attention.

"I know you are there, Martouf, and yes, I am ignoring you. There is no point in this. I told you when you arrived that I will not speak with Egeria." After carefully examing the bush, Graham cut off the limbs he did not think would be productive to its growth. When he sensed that his offspring had not left, Selmac rolled his eyes. "Go find your mate, Lantash, I am sure that after last night's lack of affections you are feeling bereft. Your visits are so infrequent, I am sure he would welcome the comfort of your arms."

"Do not dismiss me, Selmac!" Now he was angry. If reason would not work, he was perfectly willing to fight. "We grow weary of this sulking the two of you are doing. Egeria has all but cut herself off from the universe and you are acting like a spoiled child."

"You know, that is just like you. When you don't get what you want right away, you get angry and try to pick a fight." Picking up the clippings, Graham put them in the bucket next to him. "I'm not playing with you today, Lantash. In the words of these Tau'ri, fuck off!" Adjusting the wide brimmed panama hat that Selmac had forced him to wear, Graham almost tore it off. "Laia, I believe the berry bushes need some fertilizer."

Raising her face from the flower bushes, Laia smiled at them in a pleasant daze. "Yes, you may be correct, Selmac. I am sure they would welcome the chance to gain more food. Then again, they are growing fat already."

"See, Martouf, I am busy." Stepping around the taller man, he shouldered the bucket and walked towards the back of the pyramid green house.

Martouf could only watch him go in failure. It was useless, Selmac was almost as immovable as his Jolinar. At times like these it was easy to see why they had been old friends. Times like these he hated both of them. Nodding to nothing in particular, he turned on heel and stormed out of the green house.

He was extra careful to slam the doors on his way out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam's head hurt. Taking a hit of the pot, she massaged her temple with the free hand. Feeling another one take her right temple, she smiled in gratitude to whoever that was. "I think we partied too hard last night."

"Well suck it up, Major, we got work to do. The committee sent a dispatch this morning, they want results in the next thirty-six hours or they are pulling the plug completely!" Pulling the joint from Sam's hand, Merryl pushed an ice pack upon her. Picking up the joint, he took a puff. "Those crazy bastards believe the recent trinium power relay wasn't just a fluke and want us to repeat it again for their represenative tomorrow."

"That's impossible. We only tried it once, the trinium takes too long to refine for the molding process. There isn't enough time!" Panic setting in, Sam stood up slowly, clutching the wall. They had to get to the comm room quick and see if she could finagle a little more time from them. When she started to fall over, Merryl caught her. She grinned at him.

"Preaching to the chorus, Major, preaching to the chorus." Rubbing her own head, Petrikov blinked a couple times to clear her vision. Standing up from where she had fallen over the night before during a drunken dance, she tried to figure out just how much of her brain was still intact. "We already know we can't do this. Best we get what we can done and then report our failure afterwards. Mayhaps they take pity on us, your country is notorious for pity."

"I'm prescribing coffee for Petrikov, her mind has gone soft." Merryl jerked the woman to her feet as Sam and him passed her for the door. Dragging both women behind him, he stumbled towards their changing room. "I believe if we get a shower, get dressed quickly, we can have at least three new trinium relays built for the modified generator. If we lower the power output of the core, the relays won't over load the test blubs."

"That's what I was theorizing." Grabbing her head, Sam slid along the wall of the changing room. "The new pathways are more conductive, it isn't that the generator was bad, it's that it's too good. The relay is overloading all our systems, perhaps a buffer is needed to regulate the flow."

"Whoa, sounds like someone's finally awake." Merryl laughed as Petrikov looked at Sam in disgust. "Sorry about last night, Peti, guess you aren't like the rest of your country men when it comes to Vodka."

"Vodka is no problem, that paint thinner you call alcohol was." Growling as she pulled her shirt over her head, the Czech doctor groaned. The pain from her headache was making even standing up excruciating. "I told you it was mistake to use old field coils for your stil, but you would not listen! Tubers grown on Pelei are full of alien bacteria, they do not make Vodka, they make terpentine!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when Merryl spilled some on the bureau and it ate through the finish." Sam gave a loud snort at her own joke. Sliding from her clothes, she moved for the showers. It was going to be a long thirty-six hours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack watched from the corner of the laboratory. Just sitting there, he had been slightly pretrubered that no one had noticed him in the past half hour. Had this been a training exercise, he would be tearing Daniel and McKay new assholes. As it was, what they were so engrossed in stayed his hand. They were taking apart what appeared to be lamps of some kind, but the whole fact they glowed green gave them an errie alien feeling to him. Something about that color just screamed 'alien'.

The fact that Daniel was rat holing parts every time McKay turned his back was also quite entertaining. McKay would grab a piece to examine under the large magnyfing glass and Daniel would quickly slip another piece in his pocket. Jack bet that if he searched Daniel, there were enough pieces of the alien lamps to make one on the younger man. When McKay would turn back, Daniel would begin searching out his next piece from among the many assorted.

What his archeologist wanted with alien lamp pieces was beyond him. The fact that he was taking them didn't seem to be of importance either. He figured he would let McKay say something if he noticed something missing. That was if the other man cared, the whole thing was an elaborate sham to spend time with his little buddy. Oh yes, he had noticed the way McKay studied Daniel.

There was another reason he refused to turn Daniel's little sticky fingers in. It was bad enough the resident alien was... Jack couldn't even think what that bastard was corrupting his kid with. He didn't need McKay trying any of his perverted McKay wiles on Daniel, because there were definitely wiles. But, if it came down to a decision for Daniel, he would gladly hand him over to McKay in bows before letting that damned snake have him.

Again, that decision was not his to make. Shifting in his chair, he felt the need to let his presence be known. What better way than with a subtle shift in the atmosphere? Of course what came out shook him and probably would have choked a horse.

Across the lab, Rodney dropped the piece he was holding and started to gag. Beside him, Daniel's eyes started to water. Both men rushed for the door, trying to fight off the effects of what surely was a dead skunk. Grabbing the door, Rodney rushed through it and hit the bio-hazard alarm on his way out.

Jack, who had been furthest from the door, didn't have time to make it out before the door sealed and oxygen masks fell from the ceiling. Grabbing the closest one, he strapped it over his face to wait it out. There was nothing he could do but that. It didn't help matters none that he released another one then another one.

In the hall, Daniel and Rodney were still partially gagging from the stench.

Rubbing at his eyes, Daniel groaned in disgust. "My god, that has got to be the worst he has ever let."

"You mean it came from," Rodney couldn't finish as he was back to retching.

"Yes!" Sliding along corridor, Daniel used the walls to guide him. "Until that place airs out, or the hazmat team deals with him, then your lab is out of commission. I've got a few things in my lab I want to deal with, so I'll see you around." He didn't wait for Rodney to regain his breath long enough to reply before heading off.

Reaching in to his pocket, he felt the comfortable weight of the parts and couldn't explain why they made him feel secure. He avoided the path of the other people as they came down the corridor towards Rodney's lab. They would want to talk to Rodney about why his lab was quarantined and why Jack was locked inside it.

Upon reaching the bend in the hall, he knew that his lab was only a few short paces away. Opening his still stinging eyes, Daniel saw that his lab door was secured still. He reached in to his pocket and pulled out the pass pen to run it over the scanner. The door opened with a buzz. Daniel quickly slid inside and slammed the door shut. Once in, he was able to breathe safely. For another unknown reason, he just felt safer now.

Rushing to his lab top, he pulled open a drawer next to the sink and emptied his pocket in to it. Gently closing the drawer, he let out a sigh of relief. The parts were safe and he wasn't caught in the process. He didn't want to think why stealing alien parts seemed like a good idea. Besides, he had another engagement to attend shortly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Exiting hyperspace, the Tollan scout ship Suvalis immeadietly began preparations for scanning the planet below them. The crew in a near slumbering state, roused to the sounds of the ship's readiness bells. As they began to ready themselves for a day of work, the ship was suddenly rocked by an explosion.

Two more blasts perferated the hull before the shield was activated. Too late the skeleton crew on the command deck tried to scan for their attackers. Another blast from outside the shield blinded their sensors. Suddenly two massive explosions on either side of the ship sent violent shock waves towards the ship, crushing it between them.

A third explosion signaled the destruction of the Tollan vessel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pouring the rum in to her glass to top off the coke, Katherine Langford stared at it a little tipsy. Humming to herself, she grabbed the scotch on the rocks for Ernest along with her own drink and turned for the living room. They were going to celebrate their third wedding aniversary tonight and she was intent on getting damned good and drunk. It wasn't often she went against doctor's orders, but it had been so long since she had a drink, she figured why the hell not.

"Hurry up, Katherine!"

"I'm carrying them as fast as I can, you old coot! Keep your slippers on, that viagra won't kick in for a while yet anyways!" Muttering to herself about impatient men and how they never changed, she nearly tripped over her own feet. After catching her balance, she looked down to make sure the drinks were still intact. Wouldn't want to have to spend more time in the kitchen under the influence, who knew what she might get up to with these new meds.

Just as she was about to look up again, a shadow covered her path. Smiling, she sighed. "I told you I was coming... Sweet jesus!" Dropping the glasses in shock, Katherine put a hand to her mouth. "It can't be, you're dead!"

Holding up the bottle of wine he was carrying, Daniel grinned at her. "Um, surprise?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" She was about to rush to him, when she stepped on the broken glass beneath her and crushed it under her shoes. "Damn, those were from Paris, 1929."

"I'm actually here to wish you a happy aniversary." Bending down to help her pick up the glass, Daniel avoided hitting her head with his. Setting his own bottle on the floor, he held out his hands to recieve the glass as she picked it up. "From your words, I take it tonight was going to be special and decided to just come in and wish you well before going back to the mountain."

"What? Oh, yes, I mean no, Daniel, how is it that you are alive?" She finished picking up the glass and threw a hand towel on the liquid. "I was at your public funeral, Daniel, they said it was for real this time! Don't tell me you've been living on another planet again. I've been to three of your funerals, I can't afford anymore flowers!"

"Whoa, hold on, Katherine, there won't be another funeral, I'm fine!" Daniel tossed the glass in a trash can. Taking her in to his arms, he held her firmly to his chest. "See, flesh and blood, in the person, talking with you."

Katherine shook her head in disbelief, but allowed herself to hug him back. Placing her ear to his chest, she listened for a heart beat, only relaxing when she was sure it was his, not her own. Gripping him tight, she made sure he was real there too. "Tell me I have not completely taken leave of my senses."

"You're still sane." Daniel frowned as he stared down upon her. "Or at least I think you are. This could all be a delusion and you might want to seek professional help." Laughing as she swatted his arm, Daniel set her back far enough to bend over and pick up the bottle of wine. "Here, this is for you. Happy anniversary."

"Dr. Jackson?" Appearing in the doorway, George held his hat under his arm. "Ma'am, I am sorry to interupt, but something has arrisen at the base that requires both mine and Dr. Jackson's attention."

"Well, damn." Hand lingering on Daniel's arm, Katherine frowned. "If you are sure."

"I brought Dr. Jackson here under the assumption it wouldn't be long to begin with. I had no idea it would be this short." Giving her a hopeful glance, George nodded at her understanding look. "Dr. Jackson, if you would come with me, I'll escourt you safely back to the base."

"Sorry, Katherine, may be a little longer next time." After giving her one final hug, he turned and followed the General out of the kitchen. Back in the living room, he shook Ernest's hand. "Good to see you again, Ernest, make sure she's happy."

"Take care, Dr. Jackson." Ernest waved his guests to the door, putting an arm around Katherine's.

"Good bye, Daniel, do take care. You too, General, I will see you again very soon." Katherine waved at them until the car disappeared from sight. She was closing the door when Ernest pounced. "Wait! You don't want the neighbors to see!"

"Who cares what the neighbors see!"

In the car, Daniel quickly glanced away from the mirror, grinning at George. "What is the emergency?"

"There wasn't one." Holding up his cell phone, Hammond showed it was set for autoring. He placed it back on the dash and sat back to drive the car. "I over heard Dr. Lanford in the kitchen just as you did. Thankfully I always come prepared."

"Yes, thankfully." Watching the trees slip past them as they turned back to the interstate, Daniel sighed whistfully. It wasn't very often he got out passed the mountain, this was the farthest he had been since coming back. "I want to thank you for allowing me to come tonight, General. It means a lot that I got to see them happy."

"I understand, son. It was my pleasure to ensure you arrived safely." While keeping an eye on the road, he observed Daniel out of the corner of his eye. He watched as the younger man shifted from time to time, watching the slowly greening landscape go by. After Daniel's third try at getting comfortable, George cleared his throat. "I understand your unease, Dr. Jackson, but this can't be helped. You do understand our reasons for not allowing you to leave, correct?"

"This isn't my world anymore, General." Daniel straightened his posture and faced forwards. Sitting up in his seat, he ignored the nagging sensation that this conversation caused. "They all think I'm dead and for security reasons you don't want to disabuse them of that notion. The fact that a dead guy is held in such high esteem is the cause of all my problems."

"About that, I want you to know that Dr. Weissman is no longer with the project. In fact, she and the now lieutenant Gussman should be off my base by the time we return." There was a pause in his planned speech for responce from Daniel. If he expected anything but silence, he didn't let on. "Until you are completely briefed on all that has been happening, I can't officially reappoint you as the head of Archeological Studies."

"And I'm not asking you to. In fact, General, I am quite happy right where I am. There is just one complaint I have."

"Yes?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Done, General, as a matter of fact, I'll see to her removal personally." Saluting the older man, Colonel Maybourne turned on heel and walked out of General Hammond's office.

Still in his dress blues, Hammond felt a major headache coming on. Just how in the hell had a good command turned in to a playground? He didn't expect things to run smoothly all the time, but when one of his own people were treated like this, it just made the whole thing seem juvenile. Hammond was just about to pick up the phone and call for the new head of Archeological Studies when his comm buzzed. He pressed the button reluctantly. "What is it, Marlene?"

"Sir, there is a Dr. W. H. Orion and Captain Harkness to see you."

"Thank you, send them in." Putting back on his dress hat, George went back to business as usual.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jack glared at his three team mates. He hated them so damn much. Correction, he loathed their very existence. Allowing the crazy woman with the scrub brush to clean his soapy ass was the last straw for his dignity. Standing against the frosted glass partition that only came up to his neck, Jack lowered his head in embarassment. This was just so humiliating.

After having been stripped and his clothes burned by the hazmat team, Jack had been escourted to a containment unit where he was closely monitored for toxic emissions. When they had cleared him of being a bio-hazard, they had deloused him and used a variety of skin burning cleansers on him. This was the final phase of the decontamination, having the source of the contamination scrubbed clean to prevent further out breaks.

Seeing Daniel fall over against the slowly crumbling Sheppard did it for Jack. Oh, yes, he was going to make them pay for this. They thought it was funny, but he would have the last laugh. When they least suspected it, he would make them very sorry. Then he would... "Ouch! Hey, watch it with that thing!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

John tried to reconcile what he had been experiencing with his mission and came up empty. How did you explain that your new superior was considered a walking bio-hazard? What was the word on an archeologist who had been resurrected more times than a certain son of a certain being? Was there a cure for arrogance that didn't involve strangling McKay?

There was also the collection of gremlins that made up the tech department. Every where he went he swore he saw something lurking in the shadows watching him from the shadows. They would always scurry away when he got close or shape shift in to men in blue coveralls working on something or another. But he could spot them, their beedy little eyes glowed when light was shown in them.

As a matter of fact, he was chasing one now. He knew they were around here somewhere. One of them had stolen his cell phone from his locker when he had left it open to bend over and tie his shoe. When he looked around, all he saw was a shadow heading out of the locker room. He knew it was a grimlen because Harry had warned him earlier.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wrapped in a large thermal blanket, Jack sat shivering upon his office couch facing his television. He was debating between popping in the red wings game last night, playing Teal'c's play station, or using his game boy. Each one had their merrits, each one was a comfort after the abuse he had been through at the hands of those vile, spiteful nurses. He really needed to kick some ass and all three provided that release.

The shadows of his office changing in the television's light drew his attention to the door way. "Hey, Daniel, come to abase yourself and apologize?"

"Um, why?" Glancing about the room, Daniel shrugged non chalantly. It wasn't his fault that Jack had been treated so poorly.

"Don't even think about trying that Innocent Daniel routine with me, I know all about your predilictions. You deliberately set them harpies upon me." Pulling the blanket closer, Jack hunkered down in to his seat. "Oh yes, I know all about them."

"Oh, please, like they would need incentive from me. You do a pretty good job of hasseling them all by yourself." Daniel came to sit on the couch arm rest next to Jack. Snorting at the screen, he rolled his eyes. "Cartoons, Jack?"

"Don't mock the Simpsons, Daniel, I've seen your Hello Kitty collection." That served to cheer him up a little. He knew Daniel was defensive about being found watching Cassie's tape. Of course Daniel being high on something he got from Teal'c at the time had nothing to do with it, nothing at all.

"I thought we agreed never to bring up that incident, Jack, or lest I remind you of the gerbile in the undershorts incident. Which I'm still not certain that you..." He was hushed by Jack's hand over his mouth. Staring at the other man, he smirked behind Jack's hand.

"Point taken, no more talking." Jack patted the coushion beside him. "Come, watch, vegitate."

"Sorry, no can do." Standing up, Daniel gave a good imitation of being tired. "Long day, need my beauty sleep." Moving for the door, he ignored Jack's snort. "Just came to see if you were okay. Now that I see you were never okay, I'm going away now."

"Yeah, you do that." Jack waited for Daniel to leave before he went back to the debate. In front of him was the Play Station, behind that was the red wings game in the VCR, and off to his left was... nothing. His game boy was gone! Jack went about searching around the couch for it, as far as his blanket would stretch. Not finding it, only one solution came to mind. "Daniel!"

Jack stood up to go after his thief, but stepped on the edge of the blanket as he tried. The blanket slipped from his fingers and he came tumbling down on to the play station and the table it was sitting on. The last thought before blacking out was that Teal'c was going to kill him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bringing the tel'tac out of hyperspace, Teal'c leaned forwards in his seat to avoid being thrown backwards by the sudden deceleration. Glancing over to his companion, he raised an eyebrow. "You appear to be most distressed, has something upset you?"

Combing back his hair, Aldwin gave the Jaffa an incredulous look. "I was not prepared for your abrupt actions. Why did we come out of hyperspace?"

Teal'c turned back to his console and ran his fingers over the control core. "There was a distress signal. I have altered our course to intercept." Bringing the image of the planet below them, Teal'c glanced at Aldwin again. "We are here."

"I am scanning for any signs of technology." Bringing his own controls online, Aldwin began using the pulse sweeps of the sensors to detect any form of advanced technology. What he found surprised him. "I have found the remains of a trinium based vessel. There seems to have been a massive naquadah explosion at the source of the trinium destroying the vessel."

"There are other naquadah readings in orbit of the planet and they do not appear to be a natural phenominon." Scanning again, Teal'c sent out a signal on a hunch. When he recieved a responce, he again raised an eyebrow. "I believe I have identified their source."

"A goa'uld?"

"No. They are from the Tau'ri."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The stargate exploded in to life on the Tau'ri sending the people in the control room in to a panic. No scheduled off world missions were due to report and they were bracing for an attack. When the monitors activated to relay their information, a different kind of emotion set in. Sargent Davis turned to look at the now arriving General. "Sir, it's the automated defence system of Colony Vega. The Satellite Defense Grid was activated by the arrival of an alien vessel and has proceeded in to Def Con 1, total destruction."

"Send the abort codes!" His own alarm at the situation started to grow. General Hammond typed in his own codes along side Sargent Davis. Before they could hit the send keys, the gate shut down. He glanced over to the Sargent. "What the hell just happened?"

"Complete system wipe out," the sargent whispered. "The entire grid was set to self destruct if someone tried to tamper with them."

Hammond shook his head in disgust. "Do we know who it was?"

"The sensors didn't have time to send that information before they were destroyed, sir."

"Lock out that planet from our dialing computer, then dial the other colonies and our allies, warn them of the attack."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yawning, Rodney watched as the computer shut down. He grabbed his coat off the back of his chair and moved for the door. After an extremely eventful day, he was ready to call it quits. Checking his watch revealed it was around midnight. It was a good thing he was leaving then, wouldn't want to miss the Late Late Show. He heard there were some models male and female, just the way he liked them.

On his way out the door, he hit the switch. The door slid shut behind him with a mechanical click. He loved this technology, it was always so professional.

Before he went home, there was just one last thing he wanted to check over first. Daniel had an ass he just had to say good night to. The walk to Daniel's lab felt longer than it normally did, but he dismissed it with the next thought as he was barely moving. May be he would simply stay on the base tonight, he didn't need another ticket for crawling down the road.

Coming around the final bend in the corridor, he yawned again. Daniel's lab was just off to the right. Of course, the door was sealed shut when he tried his pass card. He knocked on it while covering his mouth from another yawn. "Daniel? You in there?" Rodney pressed his ear to the metal door to hear.

What sounded like a blow torch shutting off was followed by foot steps to the door. "Yeah, Rodney, just a little busy at the moment. Is there something you need?"

"No, not really!" Rodney glared at the door as it was the most offensive thing in existance. "Nothing seeing your ass wouldn't fix." Then after a second. "Just wanted to say good night!"

"Oh, okay! See you later!" Daniel's foot steps trailed off in the lab followed by the kick start of an air compressor coming on.

Rodney frowned at the door. What the hell could Daniel be doing in there. Another yawn distracted him and Rodney decided it could wait til tomorrow before he investigated. Shrugging, he continued on his sluggish way to the elevators and then the VIP suits.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An incessant tapping at his door awoke Jack to a world of pain. Rolling away from the remains of his coffee table and Teal'c's play station, Jack glared at the offending door. If that was Daniel, he was, quite simply, going to kill him. That was all there was to, that kid of his had finally crossed the line with the theft of his game boy. As the tapping grew louder, Jack lost his patience. "I'm coming, you bastard son of a whore!"

The door opening revealed just who the bastard son of a whore was and wasn't to pleased either. "Jack, I thought we agreed to leave my father out of things." Holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee, Maybourne set it down on the television set, seeing as the coffee table was gone. "General Hammond has instructed me to awaken you. We have a VIP who will be going through the gate in two hours and you are needed to show the usual pompass shit for the dignitary."

"Oh, goody, just hold on while I jump for joy." Jack lifted a hand limply and waved it about before letting it fall to his side. "Oh, yea, yeah, whoo-hoo. There, I'm done. Thanks for the coffee."

"Don't mention it." Waving him off, Maybourne threw him his pants from the back of the couch. "Get dressed, as much as some people might like the sight of you in boxers, the VIP is a sticker for things like regulations."

"Speaking of sticklers, where's Daniel at this moment?" Jack slurped his coffee just to annoy the other colonel. When he didn't get the desired reaction, he patted his chest and belched.

"Dr. Jackson," Harry pulled out his hand held device and called up the information. He sighed with boredom. "He is in the same place he has been for the past twelve hours, his lab. If you need something else, call a waitress, I've got better things to do." Closing his hand device, he stalked out of the room, shutting door with an almost slam.

Two hours, he had two hours to make Daniel suffer before this Butt Viper came. The things he could do in two hours would make his mother scream in terror. Daniel was going to regret ever taking his game boy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Daniel, you'll open this damn door before I kick it in! Don't make me get, Maybourne, you won't like me when I have to get Maybourne. Do you hear me? I will get him, oh yes, I will, that isn't an idle threat!" Jack kicked at the door, thankful for his military issue combat boots. Anything else wouldn't get that satisfying resounding ring from the door. Of course, his actions were all for not, he couldn't get that four eyed geek to get his ass out here.

He knew Daniel was ignoring him, he had been very loud and verbal for the past half hour. The words he had been saying would never be found in a dictionary, at least nothing respectable, in his opinion. Then again, he wasn't about respect lately. "God damn it, Daniel, you smarmy little bastard, I will get it back! I promise you, you will suffer when I do!"

Glancing at his watch, he knew he would be late if he didn't leave now and General Hammond would be the one doing the shouting. Shooting a glare at the door, he stormed towards the elevator banks.

Inside Daniel's lab, a mechanical whine filled the room. It was shortly cut off and the blow torch activated. The moment the torch touched it, the mechanical organism screamed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam wiped the sweat from her brow, ready to kill the next person who even looked at her wrong. Twenty-eight straight hours of work, she was wiped, and they do this to her. They still had eight hours to rest before the Inspector from the International Council was originally scheduled to arrive and over see her work. After twenty-eight hours of work, they had been notified the Inspector General was coming not only early, but with his own team of scientists. So now she was wound tighter than a rubberband air plane and she was about to snap.

Dr.s Merryl and Petrikov were right beside her in that reguard. Standing around their break area, they had been snipping at each other. It was about to grow to intolerable if they didn't do something fast.

Glancing at her watch, Sam made a sound of digust. "You know what, fuck this! I've had it! I mean, what are we breaking our backs for? We all know that this guy isn't going to be impressed with our work and this project is going to be taken from us or shut down. We haven't done enough in their opinion, even though we are the best damned scientists in our fields, they think they can do better!"

She reached in to her pocket and pulled out the security pass card. "If they believe they can do a better job, let them! I'm going to get wasted, coming?" Sam didn't wait for them to respond before starting for the door. Sliding her key card through, she slipped through as it was barely open.

Merryl glanced over at Petrikov, but she was already on the move to follow Sam. Sighing, he moved quickly to follow them. After their past day, it seemed like the best idea yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Five minutes in Inspector General Sharipova's presence and Rodney was ready to strangle the American's neck. For starters, the man had been late by fifty-five minutes, making them all wait. Then, when he deigned to grace them with his existance, the smug bastard had been nothing but demanding of them. Perfect example was going on now.

"General, where is that cappacino I just ordered? Really, if this is the best hospitality you have to offer, I can't imagine what..." He was silenced by a dark spector's arrival. Not seeing, but seeming to feel the stare of the man behind him, Sharipova shivered. "Shall we get down to business?"

"The gate is ready any time you are." Gesturing for the door, Hammond silently thanked Maybourne for his timely arrival. If the pompous little man made one more remark, just one, George would toss his well manicured ass through the gate himself.

"About time." Standing from his seat, Sharipova dusted off his jacket and snapped his fingers for his aids to come to his side. "I am ready to leave now."

"Right away, sir." The younger of the three made for the door and held it open for the man.

Sharipova sailed passed the man with a sniff, his head tilted slightly upwards to demonstrait his superiority over all those he percieved. That is, those he deigned to percieve. He pushed passed the Special Forces guards outside the room and down the hall towards where he knew the gate was. He had memorized the lay out of this place, couldn't trust such important things like emergency evacuations to things like military personnel.

After the man and his entourage had left, the foul mood lingered like a bad fart in Jack's opinion. Turning to the General, he opened his mouth to ask if they could accidently send the man to the wrong planet and found the General already looking at him in denial. Sulking, he nodded and followed the Inspector General out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a shuddering breath, Daniel backed away from his creation and wiped his hands off on a towel. What the hell it was, he couldn't be sure. What it did, that too was a mystery. There were a great many things in this monstrocity that he had 'borrowed' from other people, but that didn't mean he understood it's purpose, just that he needed them. Right now, it lay dormant and taking up an entire wall of his lab.

From what he could see of the damned thing, it appeared to be a computer of some kind. There were eight keyboards, eight corrisponding monitor screens, and a hundred crystals in a variety of colors on six tiers at the center making it look like a demented pipe organ. This was all bound together with a spiderweb of wires and metal mounts. All of it centered around the wall port he had used to hack the base's intranet.

He cocked his head to the side to study it. There was something missing from it all. After a minute, it came to him. It needed a power source. The one he had been using for it had died in the middle of the night. Jack wouldn't be happy about that, his jeep battery had cost him a pretty penny.

He would just have to find a larger, more stable power source. That too came to him in a second of thought. It would require going to the surface, redirecting the powerflow, constructing a reciever/buffer, and finally a hard line tap directly from the generator to this device. Reaching up to where the batter had sat, he stripped away the cables and exposed the heart of the machine. There was only one way he could do this.

Satisfied he had done all he could with what he had, Daniel turned for the door. Placing his hand against the wall sensor, he focused a single thought at it. The next instant he disappeared in a flash of light.

He appeared in the generator complex on top of the Mountain a moment later, the white light disappaiting in short order. Walking over to the crystal generator, he clipped the palm device to his belt. He had to work quickly if he was going to get this done before he was discovered, and there was a lot of work to be done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were waiting for them when the gate opened. Standing there with her bag behind her, Sam lazily took a drag from the menthal cigarette. It was strong enough to cover up the smell of marijuana on her breath, but still left her buzzed. Blowing out the smoke in a stream at the polished man that stepped through the gate first, Sam grinned. "What kept you?"

"I assume you are Major Carter?" Waving at the smoke in disgust, Sharipova coughed overly loud to demonstrate his distaste. When Sam basically ignored him, he did it again.

"You should get that cough looked at." Sam's lazy grin was matched by the two scientists behind her. Reaching behind her, she picked up the duffle bag and walked over to the DHD. Waiting until it shut down, she began to enter the symbols to access the gate.

Jack, who had come through the gate just before it shut down and was still on the steps, looked at Sam in confusion. "Carter, is there something the matter?"

"No, sir, just going home." Hitting the fifth symbol, she glanced up at him mischievously. "You might want to move, Jack."

He jumped out of the way of the gate, moving a safe distance as she hit the last two symbols and then the central crystal to activate it. "All right, what's going on here?"

"I told you, we're going home. The project's done, there's nothing left to do here." Lifting her arm, she sent signal over the GDO. She shifted her attention back to the Inspector. "Isn't that right?"

That got Jack's attention and set all his alarms off. "Would somebody please tell me what is going here, or do I have to get out some plyers for the teeth?"

"Meet Dr. Zelenka and Dr. Kavanagh." Stepping around Sam, Dr. Petrikov gestured at two men in the Inspector's entourage as if demonstrating a new product. "These men are our replacements." Walking up to Zelenka, she tossed her own dufflebag over his head through the event horizon. "Good luck, comrad, perhaps you get better review."

Adjusting his glasses, Zelenka stared at her hard. "Perhaps if you had not failed, I would not be here."

"Failure is not something I am familiar with, but petty American bureacracy, of that, I've had my fill." Backing away, she saluted him, then stepped around him. She shot Sam a look. "After you."

"Is that so." Spinning on his heel, Jack walked over to Sam. "Well, Major, it looks like I got here just in time. We miss you back home, I'm sure the General will be glad to have you back." He clapped her on the shoulder as they strolled up the dias. "Inspector, I'm sure you can find your own way around."

"Colonel, get back here this instant!" Sharipova, who had been walking off, paused only to yell at Jack without facing him. "That's an order, Colonel!"

Jack cleaned out his ears with a grin. "Do you hear something, Carter?"

"Not a thing, sir." Smiling, they stepped through the gate.

Zelenka sighed. That went better than he had hoped.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Entering the last of the defined parameters for the crystal growth in to the generator control computer, Daniel started to sign off and take away his security by pass. He had hacked the shield generator's controls in the generator complex on the surface. Already, the crystals were growing down in to the mountain towards his lab on level 15. It had to bypass several corridors, but the by the time anyone noticed, it would be too late.

"Are you sure you wish to do this?" Laia, who had been watching Daniel's actions for the past five minutes moved to where he could see her. "Once you activate that device, things will change."

Holding up the palm device, Daniel gave her a sad smile. "There is nothing left for me here."

"The absence of something does not mean there is nothing." Raising her own hands, a similar device appeared over the back of her palm. "I do recognize it, Daniel."

"Forgive me?" He didn't wait for a responce before activating his palm device. In a flash of white light, he disappeared.

"No." Laia touched the device on her hand. Whatever reaction she was expecting, it wasn't what happened. In fact, nothing happened. She stared at it in shock before trying another button. Still, nothing happened. Turning, she raced for the door to the generator complex. She had to warn the others before it was too late.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam and Jack stepped through the gate just before it shut down. Smiling at everything around her, Sam took a deep, cleansing breath. "God, it's good to be home!"

"Yep, it is at that." Hands in his pockets, Jack strolled down the ramp. Looking over at Carter, he smirked. "So, how long you been buzzing about that place?"

She was too relaxed to care he knew. "About three weeks. There wasn't much else to do."

"Ah, yes, I know that one intimately. Well, now that you are home, I expect this to stop immedietly, is that clear, young lady?" His tone was teasing, but his expression was anything but.

"Yes, sir." Sam almost saluted him, but she was interupted by a sudden giggle fit. Leaning over to him, she had to hold on or fall over. "Sorry, sir, it's just good to be home!"

"I'm sure. What say we get you cleaned up and rested before the General tears us a new one, hunh?" Jack was about to lead the way to the doors when the lights in the gate room and control room shut down. He jerked to stare at the control room and saw the General highlighted by the security lights. "Sir, what the hell just happened?"

George turned to Sargent Davis in question. "Well?"

"I have no idea, sir. Nothing is responding, the only thing still up is the dialing computer." As he spoke, warning lights in the control room and the gate room came on. "Sir, the stargate has been activated. Someone is dialing out!"

Jack jumped as a flash of white light deposited a FRED transport with trailor loaded down with boxes of supplies and cloth bags hanging off the side filled to the brim. It took him a moment to recognize the goods. "Hey, those are the supplies for that group of touchy feely nerds! Somebody wanna tell me what those freaks are doing with an Asguard teleporter?"

"Actually, Jack, it's an Ancient device." Standing up from the side of the FRED, Daniel tightened the strap holding down the boxes out of a nervous habit.

"Okay wanna tell me what you are doing with an old device?" He started to move towards Daniel, but bounced off a shield back in to Carter's loose grip and nearly knocked them both over. "Ow!"

"Sorry, Jack, but I can't let you interfer." Turning to the gate, Daniel watched as it cycled passed the sixth, then seventh symbols and continue on. "One more and then I'm out of here. I want to thank you, Jack, for trying to make this like it was, but we both know it can never go back."

"Damn it, Daniel, what are you talking about? What's going on here?" Jack shielded his eyes in the sudden light of the gate activating. Moving around what he felt was a safe distance from the shield, he watched Daniel move towards the ramp.

"This, Jack, everything." Daniel hit the switch on the FRED sending it up the ramp and in to the wormhole. "We both know I don't belong here any more. Every day, I am told in a million ways. I am reminded about everything I've lost and will never get back. My old friends can't even talk to me without correcting themselves a hundred times, or stopping to explain every little thing. I'm tired of being the outcast for something I had no control over, Jack."

"What about me? What about Carter, or Teal'c? Don't we deserve the right to see our friend when we want? Are you just going to walk away and leave all of us behind?" Jack swallowed, he loathed to say the next part. "What about Martouf, I thought you guys were doing good, or something?"

But Daniel wasn't listening. His hand was on the palm device and he was starting up the ramp behind the already disappearing trailer.

"Daniel! Damn it, Daniel, answer me!" He heard the doors on either side of the gate room being forced open, but knew whatever assistance they could offer would be too late. "Daniel, so help me, if you don't answer me, I'll never forgive you!"

Slipping through the cracks in the door way, Laia was the first to run in to the room. Holding up her palm device, she aimed it at Daniel and pressed the button. A visible surge happened about him in a ten foot perimeter. "Colonel, now, before it's too late!"

"Daniel!" Jack rushed up the gate followed by closely by Sam and two people he didn't even register. He reached Daniel just as the man stepped through the gate. Without a second's hesitation, he followed the archeologist through.

Coming out on the other side, Jack hit the ground rolling. He tumbled down a series of steps before coming to a stop. He took a second to register everything was still in place before uncurling and sitting up. A short time after that, he heard the gate shut down.

Glancing about him, Jack took in the vast, poorly lit room. All along the walls, crystals glowed in formations that were alien, yet recognizable geometric shapes. What he noticed most were the steps and floor. They were lit up. "Um, I don't think we're in Kansas any more, Daniel."

"Colorado, sir." Sitting up behind him, Sam touched her sore head. It was more from the buzz failing her than the actual landing. Finally noticing the room too, she frowned. "Where are we?"

With a sigh, Daniel turned to face his friends, all four of them. "Um, guys, welcome to Atlantis."

"Sweet."

 

THE END................................


End file.
